Al Gore says he wrote the poem in his new book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis (Rodale Books, 2009), 
because his chapter describing the apocalyptic effects of climate change didn’t fit in a book focusing on solutions to the crisis of global warming. So he kept trying to condense the chapter down to its essence—and ended up with a poem. “I’m not a poet, but I did my best...” What do you think, dear readers? Is it a poem? Is it a good poem?
Both The Telegraph and The Huffington Post (linked below) quote the full text of the poem—and of course you can find it in Gore’s book. Better yet, you can see and hear Gore’s own reading of the poem on video at CNN’s American Morning Web site. Give it a listen and come on back to comment!
from The Huffington Post:
“Al’s Poem,” by William Petrocelli
“‘When I submitted the manuscript to the publisher,’ Gore said, ‘my editor wanted to know who wrote it, because I hadn’t attributed it to anyone. I told him, William Butler Yeats.’ Then Gore burst out laughing.... ‘When he acted like he might believe me, I had to tell him No, no, I wrote it!’.... a poem—one that Yeats might have been proud of.”
from Vanity Fair:
“Al Gore: The Poet Laureate of Climate Change,” by Mark Hertsgaard
“Now, with the publication of his new book, Our Choice, Gore has unveiled a fresh and most unexpected talent: the book’s opening chapter concludes with a poem he wrote—21 lines of verse that are equal parts beautiful, evocative, and disturbing.... It’s odd that none of the reviews of Our Choice have mentioned this poem.... a surprisingly accomplished, nuanced piece of writing.”
from The Telegraph (UK):
“Al Gore pens bleak climate change poem”
More on William Butler Yeats
Biographical profile of Yeats
Library: Poems by Yeats
Things Fall Apart: A Study Guide to “The Second Coming”
A selection of our previous notes on poetry in the political world:
Neruda: Politics and poetical judgment (July 2004)
Rediscovered: Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Poetical Essay against war (July 2006)
The Intersection of Politics and Autobiography in Poetry, Obama&8217;s poetry (March 2007)
Poetry vs. Prose in the Presidential Campaign? (February 2008) -- This one has a poll asking “Would you vote for a poet for President?” Stop in and see how our readers voted.
Found Poetry on the Campaign Trail, Sarah Palin’s statements made into poetry by Hart Seely (October 2008)
Poetry in the White House (December 2008)
Poetry and the Presidential Inauguration (January 2009)
Comments
Bahahah!! This whole thing is such a joke!!
OMG! My 4-year old nephew can put verbs and nouns together and make nonsense, too!!! Gore is an old joke whose punchline has grown wearisome!
shame on the HP for even daring to compare the genius and mysticism of Yeats with the pointless prattle of that lunatic windbag!! Give me some REAL Yeats.
Tread Softly
HAD I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet,
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams
W.B. Yeats
Unreal! Where is his Nobel prize? LOL First it’s a powerpoint with errors, now it’s a poem that sounds lame.
Are you freakin’ kidding me?
What a complete f’n idiot. Go to hell you “chicken little” SOB.
Al Gore is laughing all the way to the bank with this one. And he is producting his own ever increasing carbon footprint (think private jet).
algore: nuttier than a barrel of squirrel poo.
What a joke. Biggest SCAM of the century! Al should also say”sacrafice for thee but not for me”
Gore is no better versifier than he is a scientist. The poem is utter rubbish. He should be ashamed of it. But then, he has never been accused of having even a modicum of good taste.
How many trees died for this book?
What a bunch of drivel! William Butler Yeats– the greatest modern poet writing in English–will turn over in his grave at being compared to such a clown.
What a piece of sh!t. I’m no poet, but this isn’t even poetry – it’s drivel. It makes no sense. Yeats? More like Crates – big steaming crates of crap.
It certainly doesn’t meet the standard of his invention of the Internet or whatever his creative input into ‘Love Story’ was. It does however reveal his childlike look at a subject that is WAY over his head. Someone needs to give him his medicine and keep him out of the public view. We almost had a president with an IQ of a toilet plunger.
Every time this dolt opens his mouth he more firmly establishes the fraudulent nature of his cause.
Keep talkin’ Al!
Honestly, this con man has raked in over $100,000,000 on this lie. Now, even with the whole climate confidence game being exposed, he’s out reading poems! And you guy talk about how clever and nuanced it is.
I would laugh if it weren’t so pitifully serious. Please… wake up and accept the fact you swallowed a line hook, line, and sinker, and make this guy go away. There is no good reason to let him keep getting rich on this bogus scam.
He obviously cracked after the Florida debacle, and I’m not so sure he was stable before that. He is such an opportunist and narcissist, how can anyone with half a brain take him serious. It’s like the climatology version of the Rev. Jim Jones.
Bwhahahahaha! What a moron! I love that people still believe in global warming even with a dingbat like Gore as that religion’s high priest.
al-a-goreickly speaking, ol’ al should grab his “tool”, whatever that is, and whack himself with it. this guy should be in prison for fraud. or at least the poster boy for stupid is us.
Just found this. It’s perfect.
Im going to present it to my teacher (we had to present a poem).
I wonder what she’ll say.
I’m in 11th grade btw.
Al Gore can never hold a candle to Edgar Allan Poe becuase his poem proves he is a liberal pinhead and plain out of his mind.
AL GORE A POET HE,S NOT,JUST A SPOILED LITTLE SNOT,A EGO SO BIG,CANT COVER WITH WIG,AND MIND STEADLY GOING TO POT