Sing a Song of Europe -- Anonymous

Guest poem sent in by Priscilla Jebaraj

(Poem #1917) Sing a Song of Europe Sing a song of Europe, highly civilized, Four and twenty nations wholly hypnotised, When the battle opens, the bullets start to sing - Isn't it a silly way to act for any King? The Kings are in the background, issuing commands, The Queens are in the parlours, per etiquette's demand; The bankers in the country house are busy multiplying The common people at the front are doing all the dying. -- Anonymous

In the comments on the last poem, Vivian had said, "Like many folk songs,
this is a kind of oral poetry that gives license to its 'users' to invent
verses and variations of their own." I immediately remembered a variation on
Sing a Song of Sixpence that a former classmate and current Minstrels member
Amulya Gopalakrishnan used to quote. As far as I remember, it was about the
confusion of the European Union. Or was it the Common Market?

I couldn't find it on the net (Amu, if you're reading this, do send the
lyrics you used to sing), but I did find this earlier parody, apparently
Australian in origin. It was published in a 1928 edition of The Iron Worker,
a newspaper of the NSW, a branch of Federated Ironworkers Association. It
refers, I would guess, to World War I. But since the War to End All Wars
didn't quite succeed in that, don't you think the meaning is applicable to
any modern war as well?

Priscilla

Away With Rum -- Theodore Bikel

Guest poem sent in by Vivian

(Poem #1916) Away With Rum We're coming we're coming. Our brave little band On the right side of temperance we now take our stand. We don't use tobacco because we do think That the people who do so are likely to drink. [Chorus] Away, away, with rum, by gum, With rum, by gum, with rum, by gum, Away, away, with rum, by gum, The song of the Salvation Army. We never eat cookies because they have yeast And one little bite makes a man like a beast. Oh, can you imagine a sadder disgrace, Than a man in the gutter with crumbs in his face? [Chorus] We never eat fruitcake because it has rum, And one little slice puts a man on the bum. Oh, can you imagine a sorrier sight, Than a man eating fruitcake until he gets tight? [Chorus] -- Theodore Bikel

Franklin P. Adams' "Prohibition" inevitably brought this to mind. Here, the
song tweaks the temperance movement (there are versions with "Temperance
Union" rather than "Salvation Army") for going to intemperate extremes, but
the underlying message is that anything that seems like a pretty good idea
in the first place (in the specific case, immoderate consumption of alcohol
can lead to disastrous results) when taken to its logical extremes can be
absurd and even violent.

When I first learned this song, I understood the words to the chorus as
"Away, away with rum, buy gum" (rather than "by gum"), possible because we
sang the final chorus as:

  Away, away with gum, buy rum
  With gum, buy rum, with gum, buy rum,
  Away, away with gum, buy rum,
  The salvation song of the army."

Which brings me to the next point: Like many folk songs, this is a kind of
oral poetry that gives license to its "users" to invent verses and
variations of their own. A collection of these - some of them quite funny -
can be seen at http://www.whitetreeaz.com/awayrum.htm.

Vivian

[Links]

The guitar chords are here:
http://www.thetabworld.com/Bikel_Theo__Away_With_Rum_guitar_chord_printable.html

Biography:
  Austrian-born character actor, folk singer and musician (1924-)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Bikel

Bikel's website:
  http://www.bikel.com/

Tobacco is a Dirty Weed -- Graham Lee Hemminger

Thans to readers Bob Williams and Tim Reynolds for pointing out that Adams was
riffing off the following Graham Lee Hemminger poem:

(Poem #1915) Tobacco is a Dirty Weed Tobacco is a dirty weed, I like it. It satisfies no normal need, I like it. It makes you thin, it makes you lean, It takes the hair right off your bean. It's the worst darn stuff I've ever seen. I like it. -- Graham Lee Hemminger

Hemminger in turn seems to have been poking fun at the far more solemn (and, as
far as I can find out, anonymous) verse:

 Tobacco is a filthy weed
 That from the devil doth proceed,
 That drains your purse,
 That burns your clothes,
 That makes a chimney of your nose.

However I still feel that while Hemminger's poem was merely an amusing parody,
Adams's had some undefinable element to it that lent it a touch of steel, and
which makes it far more trenchant than it appears at first glance.

martin

Prohibition -- Franklin P Adams

(Poem #1914) Prohibition Prohibition is an awful flop. We like it. It can't stop what it's meant to stop. We like it. It's left a trail of graft and slime, It don't prohibit worth a dime, It's filled our land with vice and crime. Nevertheless, we're for it. -- Franklin P Adams

      (1931)

Note: Prohibition: The period (1920-1933) during which the 18th Amendment
  forbidding the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages was in force in
  the United States.

You'd think a 1931 poem about a long-since repealed law in a single country
would be badly dated by now. You'd be wrong. You'd think that a poem which
on the surface veers between nursery rhyme and doggerel would be at best a
passing, topical protest with little of enduring value. You'd be wrong
again. Despite Adams's reputation as a purveyor of light verse, I think
today's poem is actually a deeper and more significant poem than it first
appears.

"Prohibition" speaks out against every law, every regulation, and, indeed,
every custom that was instituted because it "seemed like a good idea at the
time", and retained with limpet-like tenacity because, despite evidence that
it wasn't helping, dropping it would invalidate someone's cherished theory
about the way things *should* work. And, almost needless to say, things are
little different today than they were back in Adams's 1930s - the specifics
vary but the principle is depressingly constant.

The nursery-rhyme form actually adds to the poem's impact - the repeated "we
like it" response is (without any explicit commentary) held up as both
simplistic and foolish. Again, the poem's quotability and memorability are
both greatly enhanced by its simple, singsong structure. Of course, the use
of doggerel and nursery rhymes for political protest has a long and
honourable tradition - the implication being that this is not a poet's poem,
but a people's poem - and "Prohibition" takes its place comfortably within
that tradition.

martin

[Links]

Biography: American journalist and radio personality (1881-1960)
  http://www.mgilleland.com/fpabio.htm

A Style of Loving -- Vikram Seth

Guest poem sent in by Radhika Gowaikar

(Poem #1913) A Style of Loving Light now restricts itself To the top half of trees; The angled sun Slants honey-coloured rays That lessen to the ground As we bike through The corridor of Palm Drive. We two Have reached a safety the years Can claim to have created: Unconsummated, therefore Unjaded, unsated. Picnic, movie, ice-cream; Talk; to clear my head Hot buttered rum -- coffee for you; And so not to bed. And so we have set the question Aside, gently. Were we to become lovers Where would our best friends be? You do not wish, nor I To risk again This savoured light for noon's High joy or pain. -- Vikram Seth

I was browsing in a bookstore, many years ago, when I first read this.  Some
fragment of it must have stayed with me; I bought The Collected Poems last
year simply to reclaim this poem. It is not as if I recommend this
particular style of loving -- indeed, all those years ago, when I was
young(er) and brash(er) I would perhaps have advised against it -- but then,
as now, I find the piece poignant. The subtlety of the sentiment is
remarkable, and Seth's verse does it justice. The poem also speaks to me of
the many different personal choices that are available to us if only we are
not oblivious to them.

This first appeared in the collection All You Who Sleep Tonight.

radhika.