Off Topic Happy St Georges Day

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Ye who suffer woes untold,
Or to feel, or to behold
Your lost country bought and sold
With a price of blood and gold.

Let a vast assembly be,
And with great solemnity
Declare with measured words that ye
Are, as God has made ye, free.

Let the charged artillery drive
Till the dead air seems alive
With the clash of clanging wheels,
And the tramp of horses' heels.

Stand ye calm and resolute,
Like a forest close and mute,
With folded arms and looks which are
Weapons of unvanquished war,

And that slaughter to the Nation
Shall steam up like inspiration,
Eloquent, oracular;
A volcano heard afar.

Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you-
Ye are many - they are few."
 
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Chazz Rheinhold said:
Happy St George’s Day! St George he was for England and before he killed the dragon, he drank a pint of English ale out of an English flagon. Cheers. Let me know if you hear anyone celebrate – or even mention – England’s saint’s day on television. I won’t hold my breath.
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.... whilst Scotland, Wales, Ireland, US, .... pretty much any other country celebrate their 'day' loud and proud, and we even join in with them in some cases! Bizarre.
 
Chazz Rheinhold said:
Happy St George’s Day! St George he was for England and before he killed the dragon, he drank a pint of English ale out of an English flagon. Cheers. Let me know if you hear anyone celebrate – or even mention – England’s saint’s day on television. I won’t hold my breath.
Click to expand...

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In an ideal world we'd celebrate the glories of England on the 20th of November, the feast day of our traditional patron St Edmund the Martyr

That being said, today will do!

ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND ENGLAND

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Two serious questions:

1. As far as I know, St. George was Turkish, not English. (But Andrew was not Scottish and Patrick was not Irish. I believe David was Welsh.) I doubt that George ever killed a dragon. Otherwise, there is much to celebrate in the story.
If, in these secular times, we are to have a national saint, is not Alban a better candidate (the first English Christian martyr, from whom the city of St. Alban's takes its name)?

2. With its mention of 'dark satanic mills', Blake's poem 'And did those feet', usually sung to the tune Jerusalem, is hardly a celebration of Englishness. Rather, it is a condemnation of the ecological and social damage which the industrial revolution had caused and a measure of how far England falls short of some imagined perfect 'Jerusalem'. So, a cause for reflection, not celebration.
And, unless my geography has failed me, I think that the city of Jerusalem is as English as St. George. Is it not a strange choice for a national song?

April 23rd 1564 is normally regarded as the birthday of William Shakespeare. (His birthday is not recorded but his baptism is recorded two days later and babies were normally christened two days after birth.) He died in 1616 - on April 23rd.

So this evening I shall raise a glass to the bard.
 
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Hulot said:
Two serious questions:

1. As far as I know, St. George was Turkish, not English. (But Andrew was not Scottish and Patrick was not Irish. I believe David was Welsh.) I doubt that George ever killed a dragon. Otherwise, there is much to celebrate in the story.
If, in these secular times, we are to have a national saint, is not Alban a better candidate (the first English Christian martyr, from whom the city of St. Alban's takes its name)?

2. With its mention of 'dark satanic mills', Blake's poem 'And did those feet', usually sung to the tune Jerusalem, is hardly a celebration of Englishness. Rather, it is a condemnation of the ecological and social damage which the industrial revolution had caused and a measure of how far England falls short of some imagined perfect 'Jerusalem'. So, a cause for reflection, not celebration.
And, unless my geography has failed me, I think that the city of Jerusalem is as English as St. George. Is it not a strange choice for a national song?

April 23rd 1564 is normally regarded as the birthday of William Shakespeare. (His birthday is not recorded but his baptism is recorded two days later and babies were normally christened two days after birth.) He died in 1616 - on April 23rd.

So this evening I shall raise a glass to the bard.
Click to expand...

Misunderstandings of the poem have been rife: “dark Satanic mills” is most commonly interpreted as a reference to the industrial revolution but is actually part of Blake's personal mythology in which Satan is described as a miller who grinds down human souls.

Remember, the early bard catches the worm. <ok>
 
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"Caw", said the crow. "Balls" said the Milligan.
Puckoon, '63.

"Today I saw a little worm
Wriggling on his belly
Perhaps he'd like to come inside
And see what's on the telly."
 
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