“Ennui”
Sylvia Plath
1932-1963 American

Tea leaves thwart those who court catastrophe,
designing futures where nothing will occur:
cross the gypsy's palm and yawning she
will still predict no perils left to conquer.
Jeopardy is jejune now: naïve knight
finds ogres out-of-date and dragons unheard
of, while blasé princesses indict
tilts at terror as downright absurd.

The beast in Jamesian grove will never jump,
compelling hero's dull career to crisis;
and when insouciant angels play God's trump,
while bored arena crowds for once look eager,
hoping toward havoc, neither pleas nor prizes
shall coax from doom's blank door lady or tiger.

Quotations

The United States of America has not the option as to whether it will or it will not play a great part in the world. It must play a great part. All that it can decide is whether it will play that part well or badly.
—Theodore Roosevelt, in The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

It is a complex fate to be an American.
—Henry James

We are all Americans.
—Jean-Marie Colombani, in Le Monde