...appropriate to Andrew Motion, Tom Paulin and anyone else who thinks they have the right to pontificate at the present time. I know that's not all Yeats is saying here, but the third line is just true.
On being asked for a War Poem
by William Butler Yeats
I think it better that in times like these
A poet's mouth be silent, for in truth
We have no gift to set a statesman right;
He has had enough of meddling who can please
A young girl in the indolence of her youth,
Or an old man upon a winter's night.
(Via LovePoems.)