Between the old world and the new with Antonio Gramsci and Matthew Arnold

The English poet and cultural critic Matthew Arnold, whose words may have inspired a famous quotation from Antonio Gramsci. Photograph: Rischgitz/Getty Images

Patrick Wintour begins his excellent article (Into the void: how Trump killed international law, 25 December) with a quotation from Antonio Gramsci: “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born.” This idea is frequently attributed to Gramsci but surely, as a critical sociologist, he must have been aware of Matthew Arnold’s lines: “Wandering between two worlds, one dead / The other powerless to be born…”
Hugh Macmillan
Dorchester on Thames, Oxfordshire

• Before renaming the city of Washington as Trumpton (Letters, 23 December), the US president ought to hear the 1985 song Trumpton Riots by Half Man Half Biscuit. It warns of the possibility of Chippy Minton’s socialists storming the market square and assassinating an autocratic authority figure.
Jim Hatley
Brighton, East Sussex