Land of dope and snoring
If you're respectably at work or somewhere today rather than able to watch the TV at lunch like me, you may not be aware that a minor hoo-hah is afoot about England's anthem at the Commonwealth Games.
At previous such events, when an English competitor / team won gold, the medal ceremony was soundtracked by 'Land of Hope and Glory'. This time round though there was a public poll which prompted a change to use 'Jerusalem' instead.
Now it's actually happening though, people are complaining that they don't know the words and that it goes on too long.
I don't know about you, but I missed the poll at the time, so here I will in part recreate it and also add some extras.
Poll Land of Jerusalem?
I personally favour Jerusalem, because I think William Blake's poetry rather more inspiring than the bombastic hackwork that AC Benson churned out for Land of Hope and Glory. For one thing, the line about "Wider and still wider / Shall thy bounds be set" seems singularly inappropriate for a Commonwealth event involving countries who owe their existence to the belated retrenchment of those bounds. Also, it seems to me that piously hoping that God will make the nation mightier runs a poor second to strapping on one's bow of burning gold and setting out to achieve a better England directly by human effort.
(And LoHaG is the anthem of the Conservative Party, while Jerusalem was the anthem of the women's suffrage movement. There you go.)
I wonder though why 'I Vow to Thee, My Country' wasn't offered as an option? Maybe too slow…
At previous such events, when an English competitor / team won gold, the medal ceremony was soundtracked by 'Land of Hope and Glory'. This time round though there was a public poll which prompted a change to use 'Jerusalem' instead.
Now it's actually happening though, people are complaining that they don't know the words and that it goes on too long.
I don't know about you, but I missed the poll at the time, so here I will in part recreate it and also add some extras.
Poll Land of Jerusalem?
I personally favour Jerusalem, because I think William Blake's poetry rather more inspiring than the bombastic hackwork that AC Benson churned out for Land of Hope and Glory. For one thing, the line about "Wider and still wider / Shall thy bounds be set" seems singularly inappropriate for a Commonwealth event involving countries who owe their existence to the belated retrenchment of those bounds. Also, it seems to me that piously hoping that God will make the nation mightier runs a poor second to strapping on one's bow of burning gold and setting out to achieve a better England directly by human effort.
(And LoHaG is the anthem of the Conservative Party, while Jerusalem was the anthem of the women's suffrage movement. There you go.)
I wonder though why 'I Vow to Thee, My Country' wasn't offered as an option? Maybe too slow…