Please refer to notes linked to line numbers
as each line corresponds to a quotation from
different poems annotated below... Enjoy !
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“A great while ago the world begun,
and we’ll strive to please you every one !”
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1 Mist melted from the mountain grey,
2 my road wound uphill all the way,
3 the stroll had bowled my breath away.
4 Below, beneath the rays of May, -
5 the briny beaches of the bay
6 whose level sands stretched far away.
7 I lay down in the heat of day
8 where ivy leaves curled up astray
9 ‘neath furze unprofitably gay.
.
10 Beyond, a sparrowed hedgerow lay
11 where patient silken spinners’ sway,
12 their multicoloured webs would play
13 with passing flies, a buzzing prey.
.
13A The spider weaves by night and day
13B although she’s heard a whisper say
13C a curse is on her if she stay.
13D She fears no curse, knows no dismay,
13E and so weaves on upon her way
13F a magic web with colours gay
13G with little other care today.
14 Bright bluebell buds in bursting spray
15 breathed perfum’d balm in sweet array, -
16 incomp’rable sweet summer’s day !
.
17 Bright blooms burst through in fairest hue
18 dressing the grounds in garlands new,
19 violets waved where green grass grew.
20 From far at sea a salt breeze blew
21 from foam-flecked waves whence - cry and hue –
22 white seagulls wheeled with plaintive mew.
23 From too much walking tired limbs ache,
24 while fingers flexed with feeble shake
25 from every effort one must make.
.
26 My thirsty grief the vine did slake,
27 I supped alone, but half awake,
28 then slumbered hours without a break.
29 Lowly plowman limped his way
30 with lowing herd, unheard were they.
.
31 From dreamless sleep I did not stray,
32 thus missed the sad decay of day
33 which mortal man may not delay,
34 spared from spite by sprite, elf and fay
35 while hawk winged homewards, would not stay.
.
36 Sun, sinking, bid the birds asleep
37 though thorny hedgehogs on did creep
38 and tickled trout rose from the deep.
39 My spirit, it was sealed so deep,
40 no snore, no sigh, nor timid peep,
41 nor sound disturbed the sleeping sheep,
42 no lamb strayed far from shepherd’s keep –
42A few, few should part where many meet
42B or moor may be their winding sheet.
.
42C Near bank where wild thyme blew so sweet,
42D where oxlips, nodding violet greet
42E the senses, woodbine, musk rose mete,
42F together twine, round oak trees’ feet,
42G there hateful fantasies, deceit,
42H were banished by dream lull’d heart beat.
43 Then from repose with sudden leap,
44 I rose to see on hillside steep,
45 two brave buck deer who’d butt and bray
46 together met in mortal fray.
47 Their antlers locked as flesh would fray
48 til one, the elder, brought to bay,
49 strength fled, - fell ! Flat his form did stay, -
50 ne’er more to taste the scent of day.
;
51 Grey shadows glided by the brake;
52 the tawny owl and spotted snake
53 and playful badger cubs did wake, -
54 these rolled at ease where farmer’s rake
55 once furrowed for his harvest take.
56 Soft winds the moonlit leaves did shake
56A while here and there a foamy flake
56B winds whipped on silvery waterbreak.
57 On forest’s ferny floor a few
58 phantom horses’ hooves first flew,
59 then halted, fairy fronds to chew.
;
60 I felt as if their feet once knew
61 the road that wound the wan woods through,
62 now almost overgrown with yew.
;
63 Green glow worms glittered in the dew
64 blinking back to the star-backed blue.
65 No marks of Man here marred the view.
66 The pearls that string the Milky Way,
67 I numbered them at dusk that day, -
68 and when the sun rose where were they ?
69 All happened here but yesterday,
70 now ended is our brief sweet play –
71 Time, gipsy man, no more could stay ...
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See References below :) 28th and 29th April 1975
Note : The references entirely in Green were used for this parody,
as obviously the World Wide Web did not exist in 1975
others have been added to facilitate either research or interest or both.
Lines 13A – 13E, 42A – 42H written 29th August 2005 researching links.
p.s. Apologies if links no longer function.
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“A great while ago the world begun,
and we’ll strive to please you every one !”
William Shakespeare Twelfth Night Act V Scene i
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1 Mist melted from the mountain grey,
The mist has left the mountain grey
Sir Walter Scott : Hunting Song
http://www.bartleby.com/106/239.html
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A mist is making night more dark....
Misty vale and mountain grey are all the scene we're needing !
Faust - Johann Wolfgang v Goethe
http://www.levity.com/alchemy/faust18.html
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mountain grey, and the blue dazzle of Morecambe Bay,
The mist, the heavy mist, that was like a ghastly curtain, ...
The Sexton's Hero Elizabeth Gaskell
.
http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/EG-Sexton.html
the mist that sleeps on a waveless sea.
... on the mountain grey
Kilmeny James Hogg
.
http://www.horrormasters.com/Text/a_211.pdf
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2 my road wound uphill all the way;
Does the road wind uphill all the way ?
Christina Rosetti Uphill
http://www.bartleby.com/101/783.html
"the road wound uphill all the way"
http://www.allroutes.to/campdiamondstory/chapter09.htm
The road wound uphill not quite all the way
Ode to Skylarks
http://www.pet.cam.ac.uk/student/music/Spain2.html
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3 the stroll had bowled my breath away. JR
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4 Below, beneath the rays of May, -
All there is here are rays of May
You’re connected and subjected
To a place that’s dedicated
To a thing most have desecrated
Yet few have demonstrated
Erin
Beyond Reality is where I fell
http://www.subreality.com/sc/fics/briwif.htm
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5 the briny beaches of the bay
sandy beaches of the bay of the Mount-SaintMichel
http://www.ville-avranches.fr/english/percee_avranches/percee03_30juil_2.htm
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6 whose level sands stretched far away.
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
Percy Bysshe Shelley : Ozymandias
http://www.bartleby.com/106/246.html
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7 I lay down in the heat of day
I lay in the heat of day awaiting her to return
whiling and watching the movement of all the humming
of the forest the buzzing and clicks
David Arthur Adams - N’kima Speaks
http://www.erblist.com/erbmania/nkima/nkimatales.html
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8 where ivy leaves curled up astray
In the wild world astray.
It was a dream; I'm home again!
I hear the ivy-leaves Tap-tapping on the leaded pane !
Oh, listen ! how the laughing rain
Runs from our cottage eaves!
Mathilde Blinde The Message
http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/blind/dramas.html
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9 ‘neath furse unprofitably gay.
Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the way
With blossomed furze unprofitably gay.
Oliver Goldsmith : The Village Schoolmaster
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1220.html
.Goldsmith calls the Furze 'unprofitably gay,' but Furze is not 'unprofitable.'
It is usually cut once in three years, and its ashes, after burning,
yields a serviceable dressing for the land.
M. Grieve : A Modern Herbal
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/g/gorgol31.html
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10 Beyond, a sparrowed hedgerow lay
Beyond the hedgerow lay the cornfield.
Wild bee-orchids grew in profusion
Irma Dolphin - Our Village
http://www.hydeheath.com/VillageHistory.htm
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11 where patient silken spinners sway,
make even the silken spinners of the Reagan era seem primitive
by comparison."... If corporations can play the talk radio game
Weapon of mass communication
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/November_2003.html
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12 their multicoloured webs would sway
Weave yer magic multicoloured webs
Dame Ariadne, keep catching
them pesky flies that try tae eat my rationales
.
13 with passing flies, a buzzing prey.
Not half so thin their webs the spiders weave,
Which the most wary, buzzing prey deceive.
Ovid Metamorphoses Book IV
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/ovid/meta/meta03.htm
.
Just as Arachne when buzzing prey Entangle, flutter,
and would wing away, From watchful ambuscade insidious springs
Gentleman’s Magazine 1740
On The Death of The Famous Flyer on The Rope at Shrewsbury
http://www.ingenuity.org.uk/gentlemens_magazine.html
.
fly-infested curtain where once neat green shade-rollers had hung.
... a spider seized his buzzing prey
and scampered back into a hole in the wall.
George A England Darkness and Dawn
http://www.litrix.com/darkdawn/darkd001.htm
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13A The spider weaves by night and day Tennyson: Lady of Shalott
13B although she’s heard a whisper say Tennyson: Lady of Shalott
13C a curse is on her if she stay. Tennyson: Lady of Shalott
13D She fears no curse, knows no dismay,
13E and so weaves on upon her way
13F a magic web with colours gay Tennyson: Lady of Shalott
13G with little other care today.
There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
Lines 13A B C F Alfred Tennyson The Lady of Shalott DEG - JR
http://charon.sfsu.edu/TENNYSON/TENNLADY.HTML
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14 Bright bluebell buds in bursting spray
Bluebell Buds
http://www.outdooreyes.com/list/thegallerys.php3?photoid=1035&first=first&wh=3
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15 breathed perfum’d balm in sweet array, -
Can you, ye flow'rets, spread your perfumed balm
Mid pearly gems of dew that shine so bright ?
Percy Bysshe Shelley : Despair
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/s/shelley/percy_bysshe/s54cp/section369.html
.
Oh ! bear me to the groves of palm,
Where perfum'd airs diffuse their balm
Hemans, Felicia Dorothea Browne - Song
http://digital.lib.ucdavis.edu/projects/bwrp/Works/HemaFDomes.htm
.
Thy perfum'd breath a venom'd shaft conveys, /.
And balm to cheer the fainting herbs and flowers
Joanna Baillie
http://digital.lib.ucdavis.edu/projects/bwrp/Works/BailJColle.htm
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16 incomp’rable sweet summer’s day !
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date
Shakespeare Sonnet XVIII
http://www.infoplease.com/t/lit/shakespear/sonnet-18.html
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17 Bright blooms burst through in fairest hue JR
18 dressing the grounds in garlands new, JR
19 violets waved where green grass grew.
.
And the green grass grew over me
Author Unknown 18th Cent. Died for Love
http://www.mustrad.org.uk/vop/notes156.htm
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20 From far at sea a salt breeze blew
a salt breeze blew her hair. ...
There's a sense of purpose in tides and the sea,
"A matter of Relativity
http://home.iprimus.com.au/tsdet/relativity33.htm
.A fresh salt breeze blew in from the bay,
bringing with it the tang of sea
Waiting for Xena
http://thebookcase.org/xwp/text/dbwaiting.txt
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21 from foam-flecked waves whence - cry and hue –
the foam–flecked waves of the swelling seas,
John McKenny Ireland
http://www.ipv.pt/millenium/Ireland_esf4.htm
Foam-flecked waves beat on the shore
.
With tidal currents running deep.
The stormy gales around us roar
But rock us in our sleep.
http://www.david.curtis.care4free.net/environ.htm
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22 white seagulls wheeled with plaintive mew.
Joyce prised them both away by yanking on their hair,
ignoring their plaintive mewling as ...
Overhead the seagulls wheeled,
crying wanly in the warm morning air.
.
23 From too much walking tired limbs ache,
Limbs ache while walking ;
gait unsteady ; increasing debility.
Constantine Hering Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica
http://www.homeoint.org/hering/c/cupr-ar.htm
the back and limbs ache, and the patient feels bruised and tired all over; weak and faint
Essentials of Homeopathic Therapeutics
http://www.homeoint.org/seror/dewey/t.htm
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24 while fingers flexed with feeble shake
My fingers flexed, testing your resiliency.
Your skin was pliable and ... I could
feel your hands start to shake
http://www.herdesires.net/archives/stories/20000104_erotic_dre.html
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25 from every effort one must make. JR
26 My thirsty grief the vine did slake,
When thirsty grief in wine we steep,
When healths and draughts go free,
Fishes, that tipple in the deep,
Know no such liberty.
Sir Richard Lovelace To Althea from Prison
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/lovelace/altheaprison.htm
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27 I supped alone, but half awake,
28 then slumbered hours without a break.
Working for hours without a break can be dangerous to health.
"It's very exhausting to work a full shift without eating,"
David Bacon No Rest for the Weary
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=7319
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29 Lowly plowman limped his way
30 with lowing herd, unheard were they.
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
Thomas Gray : Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc
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31 From dreamless sleep I did not stray,
What does it take to come back from dreamless sleep ?
The transition is created
through the re-enchantment of Eros,
Journal of Heart Centred Therapies
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FGV/is_1_8/ai_n13665152/pg_22
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He woke again from dreamless sleep,
and there was a change. From his corner, as he raised his heavy eyes,
there met them what seemed an unbearable brightness;
Robert Hugh Benson : Lord of the world
http://www.authorama.com/lord-of-the-world-59.html
;
I wake from dreamless sleep.
For the first time since my unplugging,
I feel refreshed Following Serenity
http://www.geocities.com/neo_trinity_archive/nextmorning.html
;
Waking me up from dreamless sleep
To quench this thirst for blood so deep.
The night is now young but for how long ?
Hunting in the night so lonely ... Carpe Noctem
http://lyrics.rockmagic.net/lyrics/nocternity/carpe_noctem_1997.html
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32 thus missed the sad decay of day
And dayly spectacle of sad decay
Edmund Spenser : The Faerie Queen Book II
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/fq/fq23.htm
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33 which mortal man may not delay, JR
34 spared from spite by sprite, elf and fay
Welcome prince and princess gay,
Elf and fay and sprite at play,
Dancing till the dawn of dayIda Coe : Story Hour
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/sthr310h.htm
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35 while hawk winged homewards, would not stay. JR
36 Sun, sinking, bid the birds asleep
The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders
At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;
Then to your offices and let me rest.
William Shakespeare Midsummer Nights Dream
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/s/shakespeare/william/midsummer/act2.html
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37 though thorny hedgehogs on did creep
But, they do square, that all their elves for fear
Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there../.
You spotted snakes with double tongue,
Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
William Shakespeare Midsummer Nights Dream
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/s/shakespeare/william/midsummer/act2.html
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38 and tickled trout rose from the deep.
When thirsty grief in wine we steep,
When healths and draughts go free,
Fishes, that tipple in the deep, Know no such liberty.
Sir Richard Lovelace To Althea from Prison
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/lovelace/altheaprison.htm
.
laughing waters, which carried the joke
to the tickled trout in the pool below
William Davis 1935 Nimrod of the Sea
http://www.galapagos.to/TEXTS/DAVIS.HTM
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39 My spirit, it was sealed so deep,
A slumber did my spirit seal; I had no human fears:
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.
William Wordsworth : A Slumber did my spirit seal
;
40 no snore, no sigh, nor timid peep,
41 nor sound disturbed the sleeping sheep,...
and the rest of the citizens of this country are merely sleeping sheep
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/sheep.htm
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42 no lamb strayed far from shepherd’s keep -
Where no man went; and if from shepherd's keep
A lamb strayed far a-down those inmost glens,
Keats : Endymion
http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=3156&poem=60860
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42A few, few should part where many meet
42B or moor may be their winding sheet.
Few, few should part where many meet
The moor shall be their winding sheet.
Thomas Campbell Hohenlinden
http://www.poetry-archive.com/c/hohenlinden.html
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42C Near bank where wild thyme blew so sweet,
42D where oxlips, nodding violet, greet
42E the senses, woodbine, musk rose mete,
42F together twine, round oak trees’ feet,
42G there hateful fantasies, deceit
42H were banished by dream lull’d heart beat.
42C – 42H Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream
Oberon act II, ii)
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine.
There sleeps Titania some time of the nght,
And there the snake throws her enamell’d skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:
And with the juice of this I’ll streak her eyes,
And make her full of hateful fantasies
http://library.thinkquest.org/25592/acttwo.htm
.43 Then from repose with sudden leap
They dance in maddest music high,.
Or, with a sudden leap or bound.
Dash on like bolts of destiny. ...
IMAGINATION! rouse thee from repose,
John Rollin Ridge
http://www.anpa.ualr.edu/digital_library/The%20Poems%20of%20John%20Rollin%20Ridge.htm
.44 I rose to see on hillside steep
and see the pattern of each field counting the blessing of its yield ...
through valley dark and hillside steep hear thy voice calling,
and come home. ...Jane Tyson Clement
http://www.bruderhof.com/articles/PoemsOfFaith.htm
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45 two brave buck deer who’d butt and bray