Winnie-the-Pooh was published while a million miners were still locked out. It describes a forest in which nobody works and everybody eats.
Absolutely brilliant - I've shared it with my partner and her friend for their Bookclub! Thanks
Excellent deconstruction. Loved it. Can you do the same for "When we were very young" with a particularly focus on Sir Brian Botany? I love this poem.
This reminds of Harry McClintock's 'Big Rock Candy Mountain' (1928). McClintock was an active Wobbly. A song of paradise, if not socialism, for hobos:
One evening as the sun went down
And the jungle fire was burning
Down the track came a hobo hikin'
And he said, "Boys, I'm not turning
I'm headed for a land that's far away
Beside the crystal fountains
So come with me, we'll go and see
The Big Rock Candy Mountains"
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
There's a land that's fair and bright
Where the handouts grow on bushes
And you sleep out every night
Where the boxcars all are empty
And the sun shines every day
On the birds and the bees and the cigarette trees
The lemonade springs where the bluebird sings
All the cops have wooden legs
And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth
And the hens lay soft-boiled eggs
The farmers' trees are full of fruit
And the barns are full of hay
Oh, I'm bound to go where there ain't no snow
Where the rain don't fall, the wind don't blow
You never change your socks
And the little streams of alcohol
Come trickling down the rocks
The brakemen have to tip their hats
And the railroad bulls are blind
There's a lake of stew and of whiskey too
You can paddle all around them in a big canoe
The jails are made of tin
And you can walk right out again
As soon as you are in
There ain't no short-handled shovels
No axes, saws, or picks
I'm a-going to stay where you sleep all day
Where they hung the Turk that invented work
I'll see you all this coming fall
Absolutely brilliant - I've shared it with my partner and her friend for their Bookclub! Thanks
Excellent deconstruction. Loved it. Can you do the same for "When we were very young" with a particularly focus on Sir Brian Botany? I love this poem.
This reminds of Harry McClintock's 'Big Rock Candy Mountain' (1928). McClintock was an active Wobbly. A song of paradise, if not socialism, for hobos:
One evening as the sun went down
And the jungle fire was burning
Down the track came a hobo hikin'
And he said, "Boys, I'm not turning
I'm headed for a land that's far away
Beside the crystal fountains
So come with me, we'll go and see
The Big Rock Candy Mountains"
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
There's a land that's fair and bright
Where the handouts grow on bushes
And you sleep out every night
Where the boxcars all are empty
And the sun shines every day
On the birds and the bees and the cigarette trees
The lemonade springs where the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
All the cops have wooden legs
And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth
And the hens lay soft-boiled eggs
The farmers' trees are full of fruit
And the barns are full of hay
Oh, I'm bound to go where there ain't no snow
Where the rain don't fall, the wind don't blow
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
You never change your socks
And the little streams of alcohol
Come trickling down the rocks
The brakemen have to tip their hats
And the railroad bulls are blind
There's a lake of stew and of whiskey too
You can paddle all around them in a big canoe
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
The jails are made of tin
And you can walk right out again
As soon as you are in
There ain't no short-handled shovels
No axes, saws, or picks
I'm a-going to stay where you sleep all day
Where they hung the Turk that invented work
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
I'll see you all this coming fall
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains