Rant time

[Uncle Urchin]

yeah...dead right an'all happy....get all these drab republican quislings and traitors into the fckn tower and throw away the key....

 

we'll keep the pinko women as slaves on the grand estates that we shall live in as we turn our country back into the empire it once was.....

 

global domination shall be plotted and a new autocratic ruling elite shall rise from the leafy glades of essex as the new loyalist movement tramples thru france and germany into the med and beyond...

 

the sun shall never set on the empire and toadying pinko bliar snivellers shall be trampled aside as the mighty armies of st george carry all before them....

 

<img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

 

 

 

 

[The FD]

I agree Invisible, I don't mind GSTQ as an anthem, but you need something that's really really relavent to this country and victory in sports....Land of Hope and Glory is good for football, rugby etc. like it is in the Commonwealth games...

[Colin, Germany]

I also agree that England should not use the anthem of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Many English people, and even more foreigners, think that England, Britain and UK are synonyms. We should cultivate more awareness of the differences, as they do already in Scotland and Wales.

[Big J R]

Must admit, my late Father's favourite unofficial Natinal Anthem was "Land of Hope and Glory"

 

Personally, I go for "Jerusalem" as the English Anthem.

 

All that 'Dark Satanic Mills' stuff. Brilliant !

[Colin, Germany]

I like "Jerusalem" too, but the first two verses simply ask questions, which seems to me somewhat inappropriate for a National Anthem. The third and, especially, the fourth verses are just right for a National Anthem for England.

[The Invisible Man]

That hymn seems to display a remarkable lack of knowledge of geography, geology, history, grammar and theology!

 

Did those feet in ancient times walk upon England's mountains green?

 

No. For the sake of argument we will assume that thos efeet existed. However, England did not. There are no mountains green or otherwise, in England. Those sandalled feet walked around a bit in Israel, not what is now England. I understand he visited Egypt too, as a child.

 

Was Jerusalem builded here among those dark stanic mills?

 

No. Jerusalem as a city predated industrial England by a couple of millenia. The word is "built".

 

And so on. But as you know, I don't like to quibble.

[Stu B]

Whereas Land of hope and glory is brilliant <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

[Big J R]

Quote:

The Invisible Man said:
That hymn seems to display a remarkable lack of knowledge of geography, geology, history, grammar and theology!

Did those feet in ancient times walk upon England's mountains green?

No. For the sake of argument we will assume that thos efeet existed. However, England did not. There are no mountains green or otherwise, in England. Those sandalled feet walked around a bit in Israel, not what is now England. I understand he visited Egypt too, as a child.

Was Jerusalem builded here among those dark stanic mills?

No. Jerusalem as a city predated industrial England by a couple of millenia. The word is "built".
[color:"blue"]
And so on. But as you know, I don't like to quibble.

[color:"red"] Not Fkcin' much, you don't !! [color:"black"]

[Big J R]

[color:"red"] START THE CAR WITH THE ANORAK ON THE BACK SEAT FOR THE INVISIBLE MAN !!

 

 

 

[color:"black"]

 

 

 

<img src="/images/graemlins/elephant.gif" alt="" />

[CANV EFM]

there'll always be an england

There'll always be an England,

While there's a country lane.

Wherever there's a cottage small

Beside a field of grain

There'll always be an England

While there's a busy street.

Wherever there's a turning wheel

A million marching feet.

 

Red, white and blue

What does it mean to you?

Surely you're proud

Shout it loud

Britons awake!

The Empire too

We can depend on you.

Freedom remains

These are the chains

Nothing can break.

 

There'll always be an England

And England shall be free

If England means as much to you

As England means to me.

 

 

[Colin, Germany]

Quote:

CANV EFM said:
The Empire too
We can depend on you.

Perhaps the lyric should be updated with Commonwealth, EU, NATO, UNO or perhaps even WTO. For football matches, it could be adjusted to EUFA or FIFA.

The FIFA too
We can depend on you!

[Colin, Germany]

Quote:

The Invisible Man said:
Did those feet in ancient times walk upon England's mountains green?
No.
...
Was Jerusalem builded here among those dark satanic mills?
No.

The lyric sets questions about theology, and The Invisible Man gives us his answers. Surely that is just what the first two verses are about! If the answers to the questions in the first two verses were 'yes', the third and fourth verses would not make any sense. The fourth verse explicitly answers the fourth question with a resounding 'no'.

William Blake was very religious in his own way, but did not believe that organised religion was effective. It concentrated on only half of the equation, "the good." He believed that both good and evil were necessary parts of the universe and that people needed to recognise the importance of both.

So it is no wonder that the lyric sets questions that religious people might answer spontaneously with 'yes', whilst a more considered reply might be 'no'.

[Colin, Germany]

Quote:

The Invisible Man said:
The word is "built".

In William Blake's day, 'builded' was still an alternative to 'built'. For instance,
Thomas William Parsons. 1819–1892
Paradisi Gloria

THERE is a city, builded by no hand,
And unapproachable by sea or shore,
And unassailable by any band
Of storming soldiery for evermore.

'Builded' even seems to be making a remarkable come-back.

[Colin, Germany]

Quote:

The Invisible Man said:
There are no mountains green or otherwise, in England.

England has 233 mountains, and they are probably all green.

[The Invisible Man]

Hey, I think I've been out-quibbled!

 

Colin, I recognise you as a master of the genre!

[Big J R]

I wish I hadn't spoken now !!!

 

(isn't quibbling what a baby with a cleft palate does ?)

[The Invisible Man]

No, I think he was that Norwegian traitor.

[The FD]

Colin, from reading many posts, seems to be the master of many a genre...

[Colin, Germany]

Particularly the quibbling genre?

[The FD]

Most genres, but I have concluded your expertise is quibbling...yes!