Jerusalem

[Oldken27]

:moon2: Lister to Terry read Jerusalem! for all the good it did!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/...-Jerusalem.html

[WYNESS101]

:moon2:

[Alex MacLeod]

Never have I understood that hymn anyway. In this society, in this day and age, when so many are intolerant of foriegners settling in the UK why would they want to build Jeruselem here.

[Charles Bannerman]

Never have I understood that hymn anyway.

The best interpretation is one where William Blake, who wrote the poem, is actually saying how totally crap England (well he should really have said Britain but under the circumstances we'll accept England) was with its "dark satanic mills" and all the other trappings of the Industrial Revolution. What Blake is asking is how much better the country might have been if Jesus had actually paid a visit? - which one myth claims he did do.

Then in the latter stages of the poem Blake resolves to jump into his Chariot of Fire and sort England out himself. Clearly the Chariot of Fire must have had a mechanical problem during the current World Cup. Also, it's therefore a bit unforunate that the film Chariots of Fire should be about a Scottish athlete Eric Liddell. Probably the best thing about the poem is that it gave a composer called Hubert Parry the excuse to write the tune. It's actually not fair. England get all the best tunes but tag the most awful words on to them - Land of Hope and Glory is another case in point whilst all we get is an Anglophobic dirge by a beardie in an Arran jumper.

William Blake was a member of what you might call the Nutcase School of English poetry. Another member was Samuel Taylor Coleridge who was a complete dopehead.

In fact one day Coleridge was composing a poem called Kubla Khan whilst out of his face on some kind of concoction. There came a knock at the door and he spent some time speaking to a man from a place called Porlock. When he got back to his seat, the trip was wearing off and he couldn't remember any of the psychedelic nonsense that had been going on in his head previously. Hence (mercifully!) Kubla Khan is very short since it really is a load of meaingless rubbish so we have good reason to be grateful to the individual now known as The Man From Porlock. On the other hand Coleridge did manage to complete the almost equally barking Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

There is also a connection between English poetry and ICT since Terry Butcher's English residence is in a village called Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire. It was there that a poet called William Gray wrote what is known as the Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard - or Gray's Elegy - and Gray is also buried there. That's the one that begins "The curfew tolls the knell of parting day."

Sometimes these school holidays get a bit quiet...... :D

Edited July 8, 2010 by Charles Bannerman

[caleyboy]

Never have I understood that hymn anyway.

The best interpretation is one where William Blake, who wrote the poem, is actually saying how totally crap England (well he should really have said Britain but under the circumstances we'll accept England) was with its "dark satanic mills" and all the other trappings of the Industrial Revolution. What Blake is asking is how much better the country might have been if Jesus had actually paid a visit? - which one myth claims he did do.

Then in the latter stages of the poem Blake resolves to jump into his Chariot of Fire and sort England out himself. Clearly the Chariot of Fire must have had a mechanical problem during the current World Cup. Also, it's therefore a bit unforunate that the film Chariots of Fire should be about a Scottish athlete Eric Liddell. Probably the best thing about the poem is that it gave a composer called Hubert Parry the excuse to write the tune. It's actually not fair. England get all the best tunes but tag the most awful words on to them - Land of Hope and Glory is another case in point whilst all we get is an Anglophobic dirge by a beardie in an Arran jumper.

William Blake was a member of what you might call the Nutcase School of English poetry. Another member was Samuel Taylor Coleridge who was a complete dopehead.

In fact one day Coleridge was composing a poem called Kubla Khan whilst out of his face on some kind of concoction. There came a knock at the door and he spent some time speaking to a man from a place called Porlock. When he got back to his seat, the trip was wearing off and he couldn't remember any of the psychedelic nonsense that had been going on in his head previously. Hence (mercifully!) Kubla Khan is very short since it really is a load of meaingless rubbish so we have good reason to be grateful to the individual now known as The Man From Porlock. On the other hand Coleridge did manage to complete the almost equally barking Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

There is also a connection between English poetry and ICT since Terry Butcher's English residence is in a village called Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire. It was there that a poet called William Gray wrote what is known as the Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard - or Gray's Elegy - and Gray is also buried there. That's the one that begins "The curfew tolls the knell of parting day."

Sometimes these school holidays get a bit quiet...... :D

Charles - you are supposed to be on your hols so you really should get out more!

[Yngwie]

It's actually not fair. England get all the best tunes but tag the most awful words on to them

........

Coleridge did manage to complete the almost equally barking Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Which Iron Maiden managed to convert into a 14 minute rampage. I think you'd rather listen to Jerusalem though.

[The Mantis]

all we get is an Anglophobic dirge by a beardie in an Arran jumper.

Holidays really bring out the pedant in me too...... these cable-knit jumpers are not from Scotland but from the Aran Isles off Donegal. I had the misfortune to win one 30 years ago while doing teaching practice in a Catholic school. Even though they made me, as a 'guest', draw the winning ticket myself :)

BTW somebody recently showed me a programme from a school prizegiving here in darkest Midlothian about 1962 IIRC.

'Jerusalem' was sung and the lyrics were printed in the programme.

By those standards, 10 years previously we would all happily be singing the verse about crushing the rebellious Scots in the national anthem.

[Charles Bannerman]

I had the misfortune to win one 30 years ago while doing teaching practice in a Catholic school.

... which presumably then inspired you to go away and write the said Anglophobic Dirge. :)

Interesting to note the Irish origin of these Corriejumpers. I therefore stand corrected on the spelling which hence has just a single "r".

[Scarlet Pimple]

EH?

That guy from Porlock was he a wizard, like?

Like...the Warlock from Porlock?

Oh and that poem Chas--is that the one where the ploughmnan wneds his weary way and leaves the world to darkness and to me (and you).. ?

Ah! such wonderful, sweet memories of my glorious school days when I paid attenshun. -- I mean the times when I was getting belted for not doing so .