Comments by "GilbertdeClare0704" (@GilbertdeClare0704) on "The English Have Had Enough" video.
-
AT Runnymede, at Runnymede
What say the reeds at Runnymede?
The lissom reeds that give and take,
That bend so far, but never break,
They keep the sleepy Thames awake
With tales of John at Runnymede.
At Runnymede, at Runnymede,
Oh, hear the reeds at Runnymede:--
"You mustn't sell, delay, deny,
A freeman's right or liberty.
It makes the stubborn Englishry,
We saw 'em roused at Runnymede!
"When through our ranks the Barons came,
With little thought of praise or blame,
But resolute to play the game,
They lumbered up to Runnymede;
And there they launched in solid time
The first attack on Right Divine--
The curt, uncompromising 'Sign!'
That settled John at Runnymede.
"At Runnymede, at Runnymede,
Your rights were won at Runnymede!
No freeman shall be fined or bound,
Or dispossessed of freehold ground,
Except by lawful judgment found
And passed upon him by his peers.
Forget not, after all these years,
The Charter Signed at Runnymede."
And still, when Mob or Monarch lays
Too rude a hand on English ways,
The whisper wakes, the shudder plays,
Across the reeds at Runnymede.
And Thames, that knows the moods of kings,
And crowds and priests and suchlike things,
Rolls deep and dreadful as he brings
Their warning down from Runnymede!
20
-
3
-
@Jezza-m5k I LOVE Tennyson AND Rupert Brooke,
"And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven. "
Those lines "Gives somewhere BACK, the thoughts BY England given" SO underline what saddens me most about the contemporary situation, that so FEW seem to comprehend that ALL our very thoughts about "Justice" "Human Rights" "Fairness" "Respect for Women and Children" "TRUTH" and "TRUST",...ALL of those come as the product OF having grown among, and been nurtured BY the : "laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven."
I so miss that peace and gentleness and SAFE feeling, as a child in the 1950s
2
-
2