A Profane Poem

A Profane Poem?
(from the blog chekhovsmistress.com)

W.H. Auden:

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.

How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.

Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed on terribly all day.

Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.

Profane? Apparently the asinine officials at the Coral Academy of Science in Reno, Nevada think so. They're forbidding a ninth-grader from reciting the poem in a competition there next week because of the words “hell” and “damn.” The kid's suing. (via The Poetry Foundation)

THE LATEST: A federal judge has now ruled that the school violated the First Amendment. From the opinion by Judge Brian Sandoval:

"Defendants (Coral Academy) apparently consider the poem inappropriate because it contains language that conflicts with the school's policies against students general use of profanity. However, when spoken in the context of a poem at a school-authorized, off-campus competition and written by a nationally recognized poet, the court finds that the language sought to be censured cannot even remotely cause a disruption of the educational mission."