More from the Reciter. Remember, it works best if you follow the links, then record yourself reading the whole poem aloud, post the audio and link to it from the comments...
John Dryden, Alexander’s Feast: There are a couple of lines from this long, ponderously humerous poem that have made it into common parlance. I don’t much like the poem, but it sure must have been a popular one for recital. “‘War’, he sung, ‘is toil and trouble/Honour but an empty bubble”, “Drinking is the soldier’s pleasure/Rich the treasure/Sweet the pleasure/Sweet is pleasure after pain”, “And, like another Helen, fir’d another Troy”, “None but the brave deserves the fair”, “Fallen from his high estate/And welt’ring in his blood”. Weltering in his own blood is a great example of what I’m on about. The reciter also has Happy the Man and Veni, Creator Spiritus, for y’all completists.
Anonymous, The Boyne Water: I had, thank the Lord, never heard this disgusting piece of foul propaganda before coming across it in the reciter. I find it hard to believe that English boys were called on to recite this in class and on show evenings; I find it harder to disbelieve that it was recited as provocation when the Orangemen marched through Ulster. I understand a trifle better now just how offensive that was. Here’s the ending, coming after eight stanzas of gloating about slaughter:
So praise God, all true Protestants, and I will say no further,Some aspects of cultural literacy leave much to be desired.
But had the Papists gained that day, there would have been open murder.
Although King James and many more were ne'er that way inclined,
It was not in their power to stop what the rabble they designed.
Joseph Addison, The Spacious Firmament on High: this appears to be a reworking of Psalm 19:1-6, and appears to have nothing else to recommend it. Compare Mr. Addison’s
Th'unwearied sun, from day to day,with the KJV “Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.” I’m just saying. Secretaries of the Lord 1, Joseph Addison 0. However, lest any Gentle Reader think I’m kicking Mr. Addison out of the cultural literacy canon, check out his Wikiquote page, about a yard of stuff from “A little nonsense now and then/Is relished by the wisest men” to “Nature does nothing without purpose or uselessly”.
Does his Creator's pow'r display;
And publishes to every land
The work of an almighty hand.Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The moon takes up the wondrous tale;
And nightly to the listening earth
Repeats the story of her birth;
OK, I think that’s enough for one day.
But the brandy ran so in their heads, their sense all did scatter/they little thought to leave their bones that day at—
-Vardibidian.