Favorite quotes, extracts, poems etc

"You do your worst - and we will do our best" · The world is everything that is the case .. · Consider the set of all those sets that do not contain themselves – does this set contain itself? · I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong hills ... · Smart lad, to slip betimes away, From fields where glory does not stay, And early though the laurel grows, It withers quicker than the rose · Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!

Home Houseman Burns Kipling Witgenstein	Lewinsky Lear Carroll Bertrand Russell Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill “Yes madam I am drunk, and you are ugly. But in the morning I shall be sober!” Winston Churchill “When I was young I used to make it a rule never to take a drink before lunch .. now I am older I make it a rule never to take a drink before breakfast!” Winston Churchill Lady Astor: "Winston, if I were your wife I'd put poison in your coffee." Winston: "Nancy, if I were your husband I'd drink it.” “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." Winston Churchill Speech given at the Lord Mayor's Luncheon, Mansion House, London, November 10, 1942. ....I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this government: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat." We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. ... At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, "come then, let us go forward together with our united strength..." ...... Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail... ...We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old .... .... What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. .. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour." ..... .... The British nation and the British Empire, finding themselves alone, stood undismayed against disaster. No one flinched or wavered; nay, some who formerly thought of peace, now think only of war. Our people are united and resolved, as they have never been before. Death and ruin have become small things compared with the shame of defeat or failure in duty... ...We cannot tell what lies ahead. It may be that even greater ordeals lie before us. We shall face whatever is coming to us. We are sure of ourselves and of our cause, and that is the supreme fact which has emerged in these months of trial.... ..... The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion... ... “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day; but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate careful discrimination, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power..... ......We ask no favours of the enemy. We seek from them no compunction. On the contrary, if tonight our people were asked to cast their vote whether a convention should be entered into to stop the bombing of cities, the overwhelming majority would cry, "No, we will mete out to them the measure, and more than the measure, that they have meted out to us." ...... It was you who began the indiscriminate bombing. We will have no truce or parley with you, or the grisly gang who work your wicked will. “You do your worst - and we will do our best." more.... www.winstonchurchill.org Witgenstein “The world is everything that is the case .... .... Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent” Ludwig Witgenstein prop 1 and 7 of The Tractus Logico Philosophicus Bertrand Russel “Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind” “I have sought love because it brings ecstacy – so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours of this joy .... I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men .... I have tried to understand the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.” Bertrand Russell .... and the famous Russells Paradox discovered whilst writing the 'Principles of Mathematics' that inspired many people .... Consider sets which contain themselves; for example the set of all abstract ideas is itself an abstract idea. Next consider those sets which do not contain themselves, for example the set of all men is itself not a man. So consider the set of all those sets that do not contain themselves – does this set contain itself? At first we must say no, since the set only contains those sets which do not contains themselves – by definition. But wait a minute, if it doesn't contain itself, then it must be an example of a set that doesn't contain itself, in which case it must be a member of the set.??? Russel tried to get around this with his theory of types .... had he known Kurt Godels result of 1938 he would not have bothered .... but think of the loss to all those computer programmers out there! Top From a favourite film .. 'Out of Africa' http://www.karenblixen.com/moviepoems.html I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong hills ... The line "Rose-lipped maidens" appears when Meryl Streep is offered a drink in the Muthaiga Club near the end of the movie, and also before the seduction scene on safari. The following poem was set to music by Samuel Barber (1910-1931). A. E. Housman (1859-1936). A Shropshire Lad. 1896. With rue my heart is laden A paticularly moving part of the film ... Denys Finch-Haddon's funeral....
To an Athelete Dying Young By AE Housman The time you won your town the race We chaired you through the market-place; Man and boy stood cheering by, And home we brought you shoulder-high. To-day,the road all runners come, Shoulder-high we bring you home, And set you at your threshold down, Townsman of a stiller town. Smart lad, to slip betimes away From fields where glory does not stay, And early though the laurel grows It withers quicker than the rose. Eyes the shady night has shut Cannot see the record cut, And silence sounds no worse than cheers After earth has stopped the ears: Now you will not swell the rout Of lads that wore their honours out, Runners whom renown outran And the name died before the man. So set, before the echoes fade, The fleet foot on the sill of shade, And hold to the low lintel up The still-defended challenge-cup. And round that early-laurelled head Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead, And find unwithered on its curls The garland briefer than a girl's.... Meryl Streep then continues .... "Now take back the soul of Denys George Finch Hatton, whom You have shared with us. He brought us joy...we loved him well. He was not ours. He was not mine" Scene: Karen leaving the farm for good: From OUT OF AFRICA by Isak Dinesen (1885-1962), chapter titled "Kamante and Lulu," page 83: "If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?" Top Now for something completely different. From a friend in America, the following ...... Lewinsky There once was a gal named Lewinsky Who played on a flute like Stravinsky Twas "Hail to the Chief" On this flute made of beef That stole the front page from Kaczynski! Said Clinton to young Ms. Lewinsky We don't want to leave clues like Kaczynski, Since you made such a mess, Use the hem of your dress And wipe that stuff off of your chinsky. Thus Lewinsky and Clinton have shown What Kaczynski must surely have known: That an intern is better Than a bomb in a letter When deciding how best to be blown. Top A favourite from childhood .... The Owl and the Pussycat By Edward Lear The owl and the pussycat went to sea in a beautiful pea-green boat They took some honey and plenty of money, Wrapped up in a five pound note. The owl looked up to the stars above and sang to a small guitar, "Oh, lovely pussy, oh pussy my love, What a beautiful pussy you are, you are, you are, What a beautiful pussy you are." Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl, How charmingly sweet you sing! Oh! let us be married too long we have tarried But what shall we do for a ring?" They sailed away, for a year and a day, To the land where the Bong Tree grows, And there in a wood a piggy-wig stood With a ring at the end of his nose, his nose, his nose, A ring at the end of his nose. Said the owl, "Are you willing to sell, for one shilling, your ring?" Said the piggy, "I will". So they took it away and were married next day By the turkey who lived on the hill. They dined on quince—and slices of mince, Served up with a runcible spoon And hand in hand, by the edge of the sand, They danced by the light of the moon, the moon, the moon, They danced by the light of the moon. Top And from the bard himself .. Address to a haggis By Robert Burns Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o' the puddin-race! Aboon them a' ye tak your place, Painch,tripe, or thairm: Weel are ye wordy of a grace Aslang's my arm. The groaning trencher there ye fill, Your hurdies like a distant hill, Your pin wad help to mend a mill In time o' need, While thro' your pores the dews distil Like amber bead. His knife see rustic Labour dight, An'cut you up wi' ready sleight, Trenching your gushing entrails bright Like onie ditch; And then, O what a glorious sight, Warm-reekin,rich! Then, horn for horn, they strech an' strive: Deil tak the hindmost! on they drive, Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve, Are bent like drums; Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive, 'Bethanket!'hums. Is there that owre his French ragout Or olio that wad staw a sow, Or fricassee wad mak her spew Wi'perfect sconner, Looks down wi' sneering, scornfu' view On sic a dinner? Poor devil! see him owre his trash, As feckless as a wither'd rash, His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash, His nieve a nit; Thro' bluidy flood or field to dash, O how unfit! But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed, The trembling earth resounds his tread. Clap in his walie nieve a blade, He'll make it whissle; An' legs, an' arms, an' heads will sned, Like taps o' thrissle. Ye Pow'rs wha mak mankind your care, And dish them out their bill o'fare, Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware That jaups in luggies; But,if ye wish her gratefu' prayer, Gie her a Haggis! Top Jabberwocky by Lewis Carrol 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe. All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun the frumious Bandersnatch!" He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the maxome foe he sought- So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood a while in thought. As in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came. One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack. He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back. "Has thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Calloh! Callay! He chortled in his joy. 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe Top IF *--Rudyard Kipling* If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you But make allowance for their doubting too, If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream--and not make dreams your master, If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breath a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!" If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all men count with you, but none too much, If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son! Top The Red Flag Words by Jim Connell, 1889 The people's flag is deepest red It shrouded oft our martyred dead And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold Their heart's blood dyed to every fold Then raise the scarlet standard high Beneath its folds we'll live and die Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer We'll keep the red flag flying here It waved above our infant might When all around seemed dark as night It witnessed many a deed and vow We must not change its colour now Chorus It well recalls the triumphs past It gives the hope of peace at last The banner bright, the symbol plain Of human right and human gain Chorus It suits today the meek and base Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place To cringe beneath the rich man's frown And haul that sacred emblem down Chorus With heads uncovered swear we all To bare it onwards till we fall Come dungeons dark or gallows grim This song shall be our parting hymn Chorus The Green fields of France Well how do you do, young Willie McBride, do youmind if I sit here down by your graveside. And rest for a while 'neath the warm summer sun. I've been working all day and I'm nearly done. I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen when you joined the dead heroes of nineteen-sixteen. I hope you died well and I hope you died clean. Or Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene? Chorus: Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly, did they sound the dead-march as they lowered you down. And did the band play the Last post and chorus. Did the pipes play the 'Flowers of the forest'. And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined Although you died back in nineteen sixteen In that faithful heart are you forever nineteen Or are you a stranger without even a name Enclosed and forever behind the glass frame In a old photograph, torn and battered and stained And fade to yellow in a brown leather frame. Chorus: The sun now it shines on the green fields of France There's a warm summer breeze. it makes the red poppies dance And look how the sun shines from under the clouds There's no gas, no barbed wire, there's no guns firing now But here in this graveyard it's still no-man's-land The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand To man's blind indifference to his fellow man To a whole generation that were butchered and damned. Chorus: Now young Willie McBride I can't help but wonder why Do all those who lie here know why they died And did they believe when they answered the cause Did they really believe that this war would end wars Well the sorrows, the suffering, the glory. the pain The killing and dying was all done in vain For young Willie McBride it all happened again And again, and again, and again, and again. Chorus: Home Top

Home

Houseman

Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

“Yes madam I am drunk, and you are ugly. But in the morning I shall be sober!”

Winston Churchill

“When I was young I used to make it a rule never to take a drink before lunch .. now I am older I make it a rule never to take a drink before breakfast!”

Winston Churchill

Lady Astor: "Winston, if I were your wife I'd put poison in your coffee."
Winston: "Nancy, if I were your husband I'd drink it.”

“This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

Winston Churchill Speech given at the Lord Mayor's Luncheon, Mansion House, London, November 10, 1942.

....I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this government: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat." We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering.

You ask, what is our policy?

I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.

You ask, what is our aim?

I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.

... At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, "come then, let us go forward together with our united strength..."

...... Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail...

...We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old ....

.... What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us.

Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands.

But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.

.. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour." .....

.... The British nation and the British Empire, finding themselves alone, stood undismayed against disaster. No one flinched or wavered; nay, some who formerly thought of peace, now think only of war. Our people are united and resolved, as they have never been before. Death and ruin have become small things compared with the shame of defeat or failure in duty...

...We cannot tell what lies ahead. It may be that even greater ordeals lie before us. We shall face whatever is coming to us. We are sure of ourselves and of our cause, and that is the supreme fact which has emerged in these months of trial....

..... The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion...

... “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day; but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate careful discrimination, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power.....

......We ask no favours of the enemy. We seek from them no compunction. On the contrary, if tonight our people were asked to cast their vote whether a convention should be entered into to stop the bombing of cities, the overwhelming majority would cry, "No, we will mete out to them the measure, and more than the measure, that they have meted out to us." ...... It was you who began the indiscriminate bombing. We will have no truce or parley with you, or the grisly gang who work your wicked will.

“You do your worst - and we will do our best."

more.... www.winstonchurchill.org

Witgenstein

“The world is everything that is the case ....

.... Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent”

Ludwig Witgenstein prop 1 and 7 of The Tractus Logico Philosophicus

Bertrand Russel

“Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind”

“I have sought love because it brings ecstacy – so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours of this joy .... I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men .... I have tried to understand the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.”

Bertrand Russell

.... and the famous Russells Paradox discovered whilst writing the 'Principles of Mathematics' that inspired many people ....

Consider sets which contain themselves; for example the set of all abstract ideas is itself an abstract idea. Next consider those sets which do not contain themselves, for example the set of all men is itself not a man. So consider the set of all those sets that do not contain themselves – does this set contain itself? At first we must say no, since the set only contains those sets which do not contains themselves – by definition. But wait a minute, if it doesn't contain itself, then it must be an example of a set that doesn't contain itself, in which case it must be a member of the set.???

Russel tried to get around this with his theory of types .... had he known Kurt Godels result of 1938 he would not have bothered .... but think of the loss to all those computer programmers out there!

Top

From a favourite film .. 'Out of Africa'

http://www.karenblixen.com/moviepoems.html

I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong hills ...

The line "Rose-lipped maidens" appears when Meryl Streep is offered a drink in the Muthaiga Club near the end of the movie, and also before the seduction scene on safari. The following poem was set to music by

Samuel Barber (1910-1931).

A. E. Housman (1859-1936). A Shropshire Lad. 1896.

With rue my heart is laden

A paticularly moving part of the film ... Denys Finch-Haddon's funeral....

To an Athelete Dying Young

By AE Housman

The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.

To-day,the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.

Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay,
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:

Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.

So set, before the echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.

And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl's....

Meryl Streep then continues ....

"Now take back the soul of Denys George Finch Hatton,
whom You have shared with us.
He brought us joy...we loved him well.
He was not ours.
He was not mine"

Scene: Karen leaving the farm for good:

From OUT OF AFRICA by Isak Dinesen (1885-1962), chapter titled "Kamante and Lulu," page 83:

"If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?"

Top

Now for something completely different. From a friend in America, the following ......

Lewinsky

There once was a gal named Lewinsky
Who played on a flute like Stravinsky
Twas "Hail to the Chief"
On this flute made of beef
That stole the front page from Kaczynski!

Said Clinton to young Ms. Lewinsky
We don't want to leave clues like Kaczynski,
Since you made such a mess,
Use the hem of your dress
And wipe that stuff off of your chinsky.

Thus Lewinsky and Clinton have shown
What Kaczynski must surely have known:
That an intern is better
Than a bomb in a letter
When deciding how best to be blown.

Top

A favourite from childhood ....

The Owl and the Pussycat

By Edward Lear

The owl and the pussycat went to sea in a beautiful pea-green boat
They took some honey and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The owl looked up to the stars above and sang to a small guitar,
"Oh, lovely pussy, oh pussy my love,
What a beautiful pussy you are, you are, you are,
What a beautiful pussy you are."

Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl,
How charmingly sweet you sing!
Oh! let us be married too long we have tarried
But what shall we do for a ring?"
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong Tree grows,
And there in a wood a piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose, his nose, his nose,
A ring at the end of his nose.

Said the owl, "Are you willing to sell, for one shilling, your ring?"
Said the piggy, "I will".
So they took it away and were married next day
By the turkey who lived on the hill.
They dined on quince—and slices of mince,
Served up with a runcible spoon
And hand in hand, by the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon, the moon, the moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

Top

And from the bard himself ..

Address to a haggis

By Robert Burns

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch,tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
Aslang's my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o' need,
While thro' your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An'cut you up wi' ready sleight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin,rich!

Then, horn for horn, they strech an' strive:
Deil tak the hindmost! on they drive,
Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve,
Are bent like drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
'Bethanket!'hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi'perfect sconner,
Looks down wi' sneering, scornfu' view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckless as a wither'd rash,
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro' bluidy flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He'll make it whissle;
An' legs, an' arms, an' heads will sned,
Like taps o' thrissle.

Ye Pow'rs wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o'fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But,if ye wish her gratefu' prayer,
Gie her a Haggis!

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Jabberwocky

by Lewis Carrol

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
the frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the maxome foe he sought-
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood a while in thought.

As in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came.

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack.
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"Has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Calloh! Callay!
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe

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--Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

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The Red Flag

Words by Jim Connell, 1889

The people's flag is deepest red
It shrouded oft our martyred dead
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold
Their heart's blood dyed to every fold

Then raise the scarlet standard high
Beneath its folds we'll live and die
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer
We'll keep the red flag flying here

It waved above our infant might
When all around seemed dark as night
It witnessed many a deed and vow
We must not change its colour now

Chorus

It well recalls the triumphs past
It gives the hope of peace at last
The banner bright, the symbol plain
Of human right and human gain

Chorus

It suits today the meek and base
Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place
To cringe beneath the rich man's frown
And haul that sacred emblem down

Chorus

With heads uncovered swear we all
To bare it onwards till we fall
Come dungeons dark or gallows grim
This song shall be our parting hymn

Chorus

The Green fields of France

Well how do you do, young Willie McBride,
do youmind if I sit here down by your graveside.
And rest for a while 'neath the warm summer sun.
I've been working all day and I'm nearly done.
I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
when you joined the dead heroes of nineteen-sixteen.
I hope you died well and I hope you died clean.
Or Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Chorus:
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly,
did they sound the dead-march as they lowered you down.
And did the band play the Last post and chorus.
Did the pipes play the 'Flowers of the forest'.

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined
Although you died back in nineteen sixteen
In that faithful heart are you forever nineteen
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enclosed and forever behind the glass frame
In a old photograph, torn and battered and stained
And fade to yellow in a brown leather frame.

Chorus:

The sun now it shines on the green fields of France
There's a warm summer breeze. it makes the red poppies dance
And look how the sun shines from under the clouds
There's no gas, no barbed wire, there's no guns firing now
But here in this graveyard it's still no-man's-land
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
To a whole generation that were butchered and damned.

Chorus:

Now young Willie McBride I can't help but wonder why
Do all those who lie here know why they died
And did they believe when they answered the cause
Did they really believe that this war would end wars
Well the sorrows, the suffering, the glory. the pain
The killing and dying was all done in vain
For young Willie McBride it all happened again
And again, and again, and again, and again.

Chorus:

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Last changed: 02/04/2004, 12:58:05