Biden quotes Irish poet WB Yeats in United Nations address [Video]

US President Joe Biden quoted Irish poet William Butler Yeats during his address at the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, September 24.

In the fifth minute of his roughly 25-minute speech, Biden said: “I recognize the challenges from Ukraine to Gaza to Sudan and beyond: war, hunger, terrorism, brutality, record displacement of people, a climate crisis, democracy at risk, strains within our societies, the promise of artificial intelligence and its significant risks. The list goes on.

“But maybe because of all I’ve seen and all we have done together over the decades, I have hope. I know there is a way forward.

“In 1919, the Irish poet William Butler Yeats described a world, and I quote, where ‘Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,’ end of quote.

“Some may say those words describe the world not just in 1919 but in 2024. But I see a critical distinction.

“In our time, the …