Saturday 10 July 2010

EVENSONG, DICK GAUGHAN, WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN

YOU POOR TAKE COURAGE, YOU RICH TAKE CARE



In 1649
To St. George’s Hill,
A ragged band they called the Diggers
Came to show the people’s will
They defied the landlords
They defied the laws
They were the dispossessed reclaiming what was theirs

We come in peace they said
To dig and sow
We come to work the lands in common
And to make the waste ground grow
This earth divided
We will make whole
So it will be
A common treasury for all

The sin of property
We do disdain
No man has any right to buy and sell
The earth for private gain
By theft and murder
They took the land
Now everywhere the walls
Spring up at their command

They make the laws
To chain us well
The clergy dazzle us with heaven
Or they damn us into hell
We will not worship
The God they serve
The God of greed who feed the rich
While poor folk starve

We work we eat together
We need no swords
We will not bow to the masters
Or pay rent to the lords
Still we are free
Though we are poor
You Diggers all stand up for glory
Stand up now

From the men of property
The orders came
They sent the hired men and troopers
To wipe out the Diggers’ claim
Tear down their cottages
Destroy their corn
They were dispersed
But still the vision lingers on

You poor take courage
You rich take care
This earth was made a common treasury
For everyone to share
All things in common
All people one
We come in peace
The orders came to cut them down.
 --------------
Je touch le chapeau a M. ptb 

4 comments:

PT Barnum said...

To conceive of the Earth as a 'common treasury' changes so many things, how people live, what is deemed to be of value. The idea moves me, always has.

call me ishmael said...

Many would insist that the planetary despoilation in the interest of profits which none can take with them has been with us always, some would say that such is human nature, stratification, as Mr TDG says, but never has it been so potentially, imminently catastrophically destructive.

Along with his grace the Duke of Edinburgh, I believed in global warming before it had been invented by clever people with environmental careers to forge; seems obvious, if we release all the stored-up sunshine in fossil fuels the place is going to get hotter and if it gets hotter the ice caps are going to melt and it doesn't matter a fuck what Nigel Lawson says to the contrary -although he'll probably say, from some mountaintop in Switzerland, with Nigella and Dominic and his trophy wife, that it's a price worth somebody else paying, the rotten old cunt, lizardfolds of scrawn hanging from his jowls.

Also seems a bit stupid to blackmail the proles with bookbalancing-rigour speeches about the grandchildren being saddled with debt unless the Gimps freeze the old to death; the precious grandchildren'll need to grow gills they way things're going.

Common treasury, anyway, mr ptb; not if the New World Order has its way; mountaintops, for the few, not the many.

Dick the Prick said...

or hills Mr Ish, or hills. I do like this folk stuff - have, in the past and by some mistake, accidently found myself at some wonderful evenings. Am slightly spoiled in live half way between Hebden Bridge & Marsden which are both very folky towns with many a festival and such throughout the year. Am on the wagon at moment too so should really motivate my fat beeeehind and see what's going on in the world. Muchos gracias.

call me ishmael said...

Isn't Hebdem Bridge tha lesbian Mecca of England, Mr DTP? Or is that some other place?