gjrk
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The Pied Piper vs The Good Shepherd
Jul 11, 2008, 00:05
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There was an old farmer called ‘noch
who frowned at my interest in rock.
“Go on”, he replied
but fenced me inside
and followed me counting his flock.
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Littlestone
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Re: The Pied Piper vs The Good Shepherd
Jul 11, 2008, 07:04
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gjrk wrote: There was an old farmer called ‘noch
who frowned at my interest in rock.
“Go on”, he replied
but fenced me inside
and followed me counting his flock.
Thanks gjrk :-)
Was only thinking about the 'lithic limericks the other day - I'll lump the four or so that we have here together and put 'em on the blog.
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gjrk
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Re: The Pied Piper vs The Good Shepherd
Jul 12, 2008, 00:09
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The pig theme was very funny. Just needs some TV doc exposure!
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Littlestone
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Re: The Pied Piper vs The Good Shepherd
Jul 12, 2008, 11:40
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gjrk wrote: The pig theme was very funny. Just needs some TV doc exposure!
Have lumped all the limericks together on the blog - http://megalithicpoems.blogspot.com/ Submissions from you, Nigel, Cian and m'self :-) Let me know if anything needs changing.
Hope you like the image that precedes yours gjrk ;-)
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gjrk
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Edited Jan 19, 2009, 17:33
Caherkirky
Aug 03, 2008, 01:24
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Is this as far as we have gone; white stone
or a brazen serpent to look upon?
Such a heavy asp to wrap around a staff
or beam; “Mene, mene, tekel, u-pharsin.”
I shall take a great leap in the air and
hold as long as I can and only then.
Let the piper sound my fall. If he will.
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gjrk
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Edited Aug 03, 2008, 01:39
Megalithic mishap
Aug 03, 2008, 01:27
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Sorry, posted the bloody thing twice and can't seem to remove it.
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gjrk
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Edited Aug 03, 2008, 01:41
Megalithic mishap
Aug 03, 2008, 01:32
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And again.
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Littlestone
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Re: Caherkirky
Aug 03, 2008, 21:16
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gjrk wrote: Is this as far as we have gone; white stone
or a brazen serpent to look upon?
Such a heavy asp to wrap around a staff
or beam; “Mene, mene, tekel, u-pharsin.”
I shall take a great leap in the air and
hold as long as I can and only then.
Let the piper sound my fall. If he will.
Thanks g, nice one.
Is it relevant to ask what the English is for Mene, mene, tekel, u-pharsin - though personally I like the half-locked silence of the unknown - as in one of the first posts on this thread -
Qual e' colui che somniando vede,
che dopo 'l sogno la passione impressa
rimane, e l'altro a la mente non riede,
cotal son io...
Dante, Paradiso, Canto XXXIII
'Like somebody who sees things when he's dreaming
And after the dream lives with the aftermath
Of what he felt, no other trace remaining,
So I live now'...
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gjrk
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Re: Caherkirky
Aug 04, 2008, 10:09
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Thanks LS,
The reference is from the book of Daniel, when Belshazzar’s feast is interrupted by a hand writing four words on the wall (expression: ‘the writing is on the wall‘). After exhausting ‘the exorcists, Chaldaeans, and diviners’, Daniel is sent for to make an interpretation:
“And these are the words of the writing which was inscribed: Mene mene tekel u-pharsin. Here is the interpretation: mene: God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; tekel: you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting; u-pharsin: and your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
Literally - numbered, numbered, weighed, divided.
The ‘brazen serpent’ is from Numbers 21:
“Moses therefore pleaded with the Lord for the people; and the Lord told Moses to make a serpent of bronze and erect it as a standard, so that anyone who had been bitten could look at it and recover.”
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=ng59
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=ng6350
Thanks again, by the way, for your London tips. I would have walked right past that casket if I hadn't been looking for it and it was quite incredible.
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Littlestone
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Re: Caherkirky
Aug 04, 2008, 10:58
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Thanks g, that's fascinating.
Glad you got to see the Franks Casket. A photo of one side of the casket was used for the cover of the Penguin Classics' edition of The Earliest English Poems, translated by Michael Alexander (and dedicated to Ezra Pound).* Mention that not only because of the photo on the cover but also because the first poem in the book is The Ruin; some believe that the poem is describing Stonehenge, though I think it's now generally accepted that it's describing the Roman baths at Bath. The mention of 'tiles' and the, "...wide streams welled hot from source..." is a bit of a giveaway.
Never fails to amaze me though that some one thousand years ago an Anglo-Saxon poet stood in the ruins at Bath and put his feelings into a poem, a fragment of which we still have. Other poets and minstrels (or were they one and the same) must have sung about the remaining wonders of pre-Roman Britain - the stone circles and tumuli that were still all around them. Such a pity we have no early poems about them. One can but hope though - perhaps in a dusty corner somewhere there is more waiting to be found...
* ISBN 0-14-044594-3
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