This link has two poems, bath called Pity the Nation. They’re both quite good poems that are expressing disgust at nations like the UK and USA (probably specifically the latter).
The first poem is 2007 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and the second is Khalil Gibran, 1933.
I think it’s interesting how these poems tell the difference between what the nation is and what they wish it were/what it could be. Gibran writes: “Pito the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave, eats a bread it does not harvest, and drinks a wine that flows not from its own wine-press.” which is a very good line. I guess he’s saying that, to him, a nation should be self-sufficient. I also get the sense that he thinks a nation should be led by its best. Both poems really effectively make fun of militarism and pomp, and express a sort of reserved nationalism? The slightly nationalism of old men, not that it’s nostalgic, but it’s opinionated and moralistic and principled, and not in a destructive way. It’s very different to the sort of nationalism we have in mainstream politics today.
I also think its interesting that they talk about nation as synonymous with its people. My first thought was ‘oh well not every american is like this blahblahblah’, which i guess is true, but it’s more interesting if you read the poems as a sort of challenge against all brits/americans/french w/e. In this framing, we are responsible for the moral quality of our nation. I guess this is both true and false; it’s true at the small scale; when they talk about multiculturalism and how we treat our leaders, but its not true at the national level where we have very little control about the things our nation does.
Very interesting poems. I liked them.