…..well, the programme Newshour does anyway. Today is St George’s Day, England’s national day. It has to be said that, speaking as an Englishman, the day tends to pass a lot of us by (as opposed to the patriotism of St Patrick’s Day for example), but not this year…
English Heritage have launched a campaign to get us English to celebrate. And part of it is a poem from the excellent Brian Patten , one of the Mersey Poets for which is he is most famous and less famous for once coming to my school when i was a kid and getting us all to fall in love with poetry.
Here’s his poem to mark England’s day :
THE TRUE DRAGON
St George was out walking
He met a dragon on a hill,
It was wise and wonderful
Too glorious to kill
It slept amongst the wild thyme
Where the oxlips and violets grow
Its skin was a luminous fire
That made the English landscape glow
Its tears were England’s crystal rivers
Its breath the mist on England’s moors
Its larder was England’s orchards,
Its house was without doors
St George was in awe of it
It was a thing apart
He hid the sleeping dragon
Inside every English heart
So on this day let’s celebrate
England’s valleys full of light,
The green fire of the landscape
Lakes shivering with delight
Let’s celebrate St George’s Day,
The dragon in repose;
The brilliant lark ascending,
The yew, the oak, the rose
Brian Patten
So, my colleagues on Newshour would like you to compose your own poem about England, however short, long, celebratory or cynical.
I know you won’t let them down…..
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BBC World Have Your Say 
Ian in London on e-mail :
St George was out walking
In the pouring rain
Suddenly he felt
A sharp stabbing pain
He turned around and saw
A hoodie with a knife
Said the hoodie to St George
“Your iPod or your life”
“D*mn it” thought old Georgie
“England’s gone to pot”
So let’s celebrate St George’s Day
On second thoughts, let’s not.
Happy St Georges day everyone – I will be back later with my attempt.
I have to go out and teach the wife to drive!
St George’s Tanka (Japanese courtly poem), celebrating spring planting below stars in the spring sky:
“The Big Dipper’s Biggest Dig”
‘Tis time to Plough when
Yonder north horizon
To the furrow harrowed:
A dragon yoked by St George
Embedded deep in lore
Thank you England for the BBC
Thank you for sending it across the pond to me
It is wonderful to obtain true world news
and not get narrow US one-sided views
But now onto Heathrow, What happened there?
I heard one might have trouble getting somewhere
Hopefully you’ll have it fixed so there will be no shame
When the world wants to get there for the 2012 Games
Theres my first attempt 🙂
Regards,
Brett ~ Richmond, Va.
May I Wish all English Speaking People a Happy St Georges Day!,Britons are very friendly people whereaver they are that’s why they are very patriotic citizens.I was very humbly by the English premier league fans who attend to watch live cub finals in Football Stadium especially The FA Cup Finals .You will feel the level of patriotism in them as the national anthem is recited.
Bill Barnert in Cambridge Massachussetts emailed:
If you still believe that old story
How George left the dragon all gory,
You’ll prob’ly believe
Any story I weave,
And they’ll take you away in a lorry.
Barney Blalock emailed:
On Saint George’s Day
The dragon symbolized to the medieval
a power civilized, yet evil.
Saint George withstood this standard politic
and met his end roasted on a stick.
He stands for all that’s true, a maiden’s savior,
An example for our youth of dashed good behavior.
So as I ponder what has been said and written,
I fail to see how it at all connects to Britain.
Robin – a Brit in North Carolina USA – emailed:
With George the Patron Saint of Liars (“dragon”, indeed!)
The English lied and claimed him of their breed.
“Tongue in cheek American” in Boston emailed this:
St George Poem
Tomato-Potato, Saint Jean-Magdelen, Not to disparage Gloucester, Worcester and Garage.
Raleigh and Barkley, I add quite snarkly, add quite a controversy. How is one to do any reading? Especially in Reading, At least one consistency the english do forge, England, the king and St George.
ST. GEORGE NEVER SAW BRITAIN, BUT
George being the Patron Saint of Liars (“dragon”, indeed!)
The English lied and claimed him of their breed.
– Robin (and Yes, I’m British) Helweg-Larsen
Should we be bugged again by England St. George’s Day when there are crises all over the world that affect our daily lives. Look, let the English discuss their St. George’s Day and leave us out of it. Nobody discusses Liberia’s independence day when infact Liberia is the oldest indenpent nation in Africa with the oldest Political Party in the Grand Old True Whig Party on the continent.
St. George was a man of some note,
Famous for the dragon he smote.
But his girlfriends all laughed
When he pulled out his shaft,
For St. George was hung like a stoat.
I don’t do poetry. Therefore, here’s something else:
The spear pricks, the sword plunges to darkness
An ending to beating leathern wings.
A view of wheeling Earth and sky from memory drawn,
evocative scents of charred life, swirls of ash and wind-borne animal shrieks, now quiet pain
Beloved life and freedom lost. Hear this question in sulfurous whisper!
Why me?
George hurls through grimace and reeking mist,
“When you are not; we are.”
Oh.
See there. I told you so.
g
Ian from Londons poetry made me laugh 😀
England expects every man shall do his duty,
Shine his shoes, load his gun and stand strong,
Fight for Englands rights and Englands beauty,
Fight for a world which might soon be gone.
The Scots raise a glass to celebrate their poetry,
The Welsh celebrate daffies and leeks in their way.
The Irish drink their ginuess in their sponsered frivolity,
We English stay quiet and hide away.
What happend to our patriotism, where has our passion flown?
Do we still believe the values, they fight for far from home?
Or has the great game of football made us ashamed of what we are?
To many links to patriotism shall be found in English bars.
So i shall quietly say thank you, to those who have gone before.
Quietly say thank you to those who fight on foriegn shores.
I will say my thanks so quietly i will not let it show.
For it is English and British, with its stiff upper lip i know.
Another poem from Barney Blalock in Oregon (this time under the pseudonym of “Stogey McZoot”!)
A Poem on Saint George’s Day
To England and Saint George,
I lift my flagon high!
And to the blood red cross on white,
Unfurling in the sky.
And to the lovely English tongue
Used ‘cross the world in all the zones,
And to all the charming Englishmen,
Like Owen Bennett-Jones.
The BBC invites
The listeners to write
Their Tribute to St. George.
It is important if he
did not exist in flesh
dashing about with passion
on his handsome white horse
looking to slay the mighty dragon
to lay out his corpse
thus ride the world of fear.
What is reality if not
a mighty idea…..
I sleep peacefully in my bed
an artist tapestry of fine thread
covers an entire wall.
The colors vibrant
his message clear
I need to slay some dragons
in his name.
My England
My home, my home, oh England fair
None lapse thy love exquisite creed
Race to heart my England dare
Where none would walk my England lead
Oh high once was upon yon hill
Where battle set forth men as free
Come here those who seek justice peace
Let go your fear my England lead
On castle walks men gone by
Lived their life with duty high
Gracious victory gone for some
Bring home those fallen let England lead
My England, my England oh precious home
Care not thy attacker born and foe
Thy cross is red as that of blood white simple flown
Oh ask that England lead
Wait not much more my England cry’s
Oh perfect land of green and spire
Home to thee my perfect peace
My England, my England thou must lead
As you can see – I am not a poet!!! 😛
England expects: A Haiku
St. George’s Day, yes;
but dragons are endangered!
Dear God, save England!
(17 syllables, seasonal reference; pause (kireji) at 2nd line)
I love this dragon slaying bloak.
Joey, across the pond
… I am American bred
I have seen much to hate here – much to forgive,
But in a world in which England is finished and dead,
I do not wish to live.
I saw a dreem:
I am sweeming
I meet with Dragon
Dragon took me to Mr.Clinton
He took me to Monica Lousky
I complaint little tight
Then he took me to Hillary
I feel comfortable
Pool was big enough to swim
but dryout
Iresh knows how to dry water
Then I wake up
Any way I saw a diversity
Still I am in political dreem.
Saint George never set foot in England. Perhaps that is why he is a Saint.