Thoughts of a Briton on his Country’s Subjugation to America1

Two voices were there; one was of the sea,

One of the forest, each a braggart voice.

In both, from time to time, thou didst rejoice;

They were thy daily ration, Mister G.2

Listening to their opposed cacophony

It seemed as though their noises cancelled out,

And thou, by grateful silence girt about,

Wert once again alone with Harmony.

But now the jungle, mating with the deep

Brings forth such monsters, that the flesh must creep,

Thumbs prick,3 hair rise, and tongues to dry throats cleave,

Monsters that in their vile obstetric nest

Brood upon some obscene, indecent jest,

And mock the virtue which they can’t conceive.

[Geoffrey Faber]

Notes
  1. 1.

    See William Wordsworth, ‘Thought of a Briton on the Subjugation of Switzerland’ (1815):

    Two Voices are there; one is of the sea,

    One of the mountains; each a mighty Voice:

    In both from age to age thou didst rejoice,

    They were thy chosen music, Liberty!

    There came a Tyrant, and with holy glee

    Thou fought’st against him; but hast vainly striven;

    Thou from thy Alpine holds at length art driven,

    Where not a torrent murmurs heard by thee.

    Of one deep bliss thine ear hath been bereft:

    Then cleave, O cleave to that which still is left;

    For, high-souled Maid, what sorrow would it be

    That Mountain floods should thunder as before,

    And Ocean bellow from his rocky shore,

    And neither awful Voice be heard by thee!

    (See too the parody of Wordsworth – ‘A Sonnet’ by J. K. Stephen [1859–92] – which was later included in The Faber Book of Comic Verse, ed. Michael Roberts [1942], 277.)

  2. 2.

    JDH note: ‘Geoffrey.’

  3. 3.

    Shakespeare, Macbeth, IV. i, ll. 44–5:

    By the pricking of my thumbs,

    Something wicked this way comes.