901

RULE BRITANNIA!
Composed by Thomas Arne

(CHORUS) Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves!
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.

When Britain first, at heaven's command,
Arose from out the azure main,
This was the charter of the land,
And Guardian Angels sang this strain:

The nations not so blest as thee
Must, in their turn, to tyrants fall,
While thou shalt flourish great and free:
The dread and envy of them all.

Still more majestic shalt thou rise,
More dreadful from each foreign stroke,
As the loud blast that tears the skies
Serves but to root thy native oak.

Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame;
All their attempts to bend thee down
Will but arouse thy generous flame,
But work their woe and thy renown.

To thee belongs the rural reign;
Thy cities shall with commerce shine;
All thine shall be the subject main,
And every shore it circles, thine.

The Muses, still with freedom found,
Shall to thy happy coasts repair.
Blest isle! with matchless beauty crowned,
And manly hearts to guard the fair.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves!
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves

RUE BRITANNIA - AN URBAN HYMN
A Briton laments our nation's surrender to the shame merchants

(THE CHORUS) Rue Britannia, oh what has she become?
Never, never have the British felt so glum.

Where are the real traditions,
That Britain once held true and dear?
We've shunned our brave ambition,
Now it's just weakness, blame and fear.

We've lost the right to have a view,
And those that do are loath to tell,
Lest they affront the joyless few,
Who'll make their lives a living hell.

Anarchy rules the nation's streets,
All rules lie trampled in the dust,
Protestors marching to its beat,
Snarl slogans of blame and mistrust.

Our broadcaster, the BBC's
A shameless servant of the Left,
Hellishly biased and PC,
Yet it was once the nation's best.

Hurrah! We broke those EU chains,
Though miffed Remainers fought to stay,
But then a killer virus came
And all our plans went down the drain.

A navy that once ruled the main,
Has limply lost its former might,
But there's still time, let's seize the day,
Let's resurrect Britannia's fight!

Turn Britannia! We'll rally to stay free,
They shall never, never change our history!

902

School Days
(Will D. Cobb and Gus Edwards Song)

School days, school days
Dear old golden rule days
Reading and writing and 'rithmetic
Taught to the tune of the hickory stick
You were my queen in calico
I was your bashful barefoot beau
And you wrote on my slate, "I love you, Joe"
When we were a couple of kids

First Day, Cursed Day

Home school, virtual school
We thought it would be WAY cool
Daughter yawns, enjoying a bath
Rowdy son yells questions about his math
I gulp all my coffee and take a coy look
Eyes wide, I see nonsensical gobbledygook
A coward, I wonder if I can endure
Such odd unrewarded torture!

903

[Shakespeare's relevant sonnet is anagrammed into another sonnet about a recent loss, with a fitting constraint:]

Sonnet XIV by William Shakespeare

Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck;
And yet methinks I have astronomy,
But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind,
Or say with princes if it shall go well,
By oft predict that I in heaven find:
But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
And, constant stars, in them I read such art
As truth and beauty shall together thrive,
If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert;
Or else of thee this I prognosticate,
Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date.

[The sonnet's acrostic spells out 3 objects symbolizing a judge: The Robe, The Bench and The Gavel, and their initials also spell out the name of the poem's subject: Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG).]

Honoring Intelligent Ruth

Resolved and mighty in some softer cloak,
Our Justice didn't try to put on airs
But motivated others as she spoke,
Evoking sympathy by being fair.
Behind that mammoth lectern set in court,
Each case was toiled on faithfully by Ruth;
No sticks nor sexist stones of any sort
Could sway this voice from the Pursuit of Truth.
Her task fulfilled, she reached out undeterred,
Grasped one quaint hammer with determination -
And from that tiny tap and final word,
Vast benefits evolved there in that nation...
Essentially, I'd only spot one flaw:
Lose her and it's goodbye to rightful law.