"Where are the men with the strength to be men?
Where are those who have eyes and can see?
Looking around, I see nothing but cowards and cynics,
And slaves, slaves to their own senses.
And every one of these poor beggars
Thinks of himself as another Aristotle.
You tell me they have written poems-
You call that poetry?
I call it the cawing of crows.
It's time for the prophet's anger
to purify poetry,
Left too long to the fingers of
aesthetes and time-wasters.
I have carved my song in the high
forehead of Time.
They know it and hate it-it is too
much."

Solomon Ibn Gabirol (ca. 1021-1058)