I.
But yesterday, your noble fathers bled
Upon the fields of France, where countless dead
Had found among the vines their final rest,
To gild with fame a venerated crest
Whose princely brandishing from age to age
Outlasted armies and the tyrant’s rage.
But yesterday, you bravely fought and won
A war against the socialistic Hun
Who sought to clap you in the helot’s chains
And seize the free world’s economic reins.
Again, but yesterday, the darkest hour
Of all the world you lifted by your power,
When many owed so much to you, so few,
Across all continents and oceans blue;
No sacrifice too great, no effort spared,
You rallied to the battle and declared,
In England’s name, the inauspicious fight
Against the German Marxist and his spite.
When fire from your once-peaceful skies rained down
On London’s ancient temples of renown,
Your valour triumphed over every fear
Whose darkness could not mute your English cheer.
You fought, yet weeping for your sons that died,
And rose to glory on your fathers’ pride!
II.
Would you, brave sons of Britain’s best
Now crawl in servitude at the behest
Of Prussia’s despot and her Eastbourne stooge,
And let your nation fall to subterfuge?
Would you embrace their Novus Ordo plot
To make you into something you are not,
Abandoning your martyrs’ ancient faith
In globalist apostasy to bathe,
Or sanctify Mohammed’s violent hordes
Who now seize power from your local lords?
Your government, a servile rubber-stamp,
Transforms your world into a migrant camp.
Already London teems with Saracens,
But will not welcome us Americans!
Full many are the masks that Satan wears:
Take Corbyn and his self-anointing airs,
Nicola Sturgeon and Theresa May,
Who nourish Brussels while your towns decay.
These bear no love for you and never will,
But count as meaningless the nation’s will.
For Britain’s debt you have these frauds to thank:
What is their “Europe” but a German bank?
Whose fattened bureaucrats, a pampered club,
Appropriate your wealth, your selves to snub!
Corrupt, they steal and loot without surcease:
What Hitler lost through war they grab through peace!
Would you allow their constant plundering
To go unspoken with their blundering?
Surrender speech to their repressive state
To share with the Chinese a eunuch’s fate?
Would you let England topple on the brink,
Whilst petty deskmen dictate what you think?
Or let robotic censors gag your cries,
Whilst leftists freely spew their shop-worn lies?
For, liberty is but an empty creed,
Until the day Tom Robinson is freed!
III.
Fair England, land of hills and columbine,
Most gracious isle of rills and eglantine,
Return to thy devout, ancestral ways,
The regal virtues of thy former days!
Come forth in all thy splendor, pow’r, and might,
Proclaim thy fealty to truth and right!
Arise, O England, take thy rightful place,
Let not the heathen thy good self debase!
The sun is rising on thy fields of green,
And glory waits for thee in stars unseen.
The sword of Arthur has ennobled thee:
Thou wast not made for chains and slavery.
The clang of battle on the winds of time
And shouts of knights that echo in my rhyme,
Resound this day in every village square
And rise to heaven like an antique prayer,
That there will always and forever be
An England where the mind and heart are free
To celebrate her once and future King
Whom prophets prophesied and poets sing,
That Mary’s Dowry not be spent in vain
But magnify the Holy Virgin’s reign,
When Christ shall every bond of hate unbind
And England hold a torch for all mankind.
Joseph Charles MacKenzie is a traditional lyric poet, the only American to have won Scottish International Poetry Competition. His poetry has appeared in The New York Times, The Scotsman (Edinburgh), The Independent (London), US News and World Report, Google News, and many other outlets. He writes primarily for the Society of Classical Poets (New York) and Trinacria (New York). MacKenzie has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
Bravo, Joseph MacKenzie!
Tommy Robinson is one of the few persons in England left with the backbone and guts to fight against the degradation of his people. God bless him and strengthen those like him.
I am greatly honored, Dr. Salemi, to join you in your prayers for Mr. Robinson and the British people at this most urgent hour.
Joseph, thank you so much for such a wonderful, wonderful poem, I shared it with my friends and we all are now your big fans! It is just what we need dark times when the treacherous government seeks to destroy our country and us as a nation.
.You are blessed with exceptional talent, only a true talent can create such a powerful message to which people would respond. Yes, Britain should rise!
Thank you for dedicating it to our Tommy. He is a true hero, genuine, caring, clever and incredibly brave. There are, of course, decent politicians who act in the best interests of their countries and protect their people – you have Trump! But Tomy is not a politician, he is a patriot who is constantly risking his life by helping those whom the traitors in government deny justice, who are being raped and killed by moslem gangs cover up the rapists and murderers to appease Moslems – what they are doing with Europe looks like ethnic cleansing for their vile agenda. They bread brainwashed zombies at schools and unis who think what they are programmed to think and to hate “Fascists” and “racists”, Such zombies lack any knowledge of basic history – otherwise, they would have known that National=socialist party was left-wing and that islam is not a race. Out of a whole lot of those spitting blood screaming that islam is a “religion of peace” never even opened the quran yet they argue with Tommy who has profound knowledge on that. I’ve noticed one of those left his marks on this page but you and other people handled him well. That is they never win an argument with Tonny and look like idiots they are.
And again, a big thank you for the poem, it is a masterpiece
Populist nonsense inhabits this increasingly hateful discourse that hides the unsavoury truth of the emotionally driven patriotism and loyalty to ones country. This seemingly harmless pursuit always turns extremely nasty when there is alleged transgression by the ‘other’. Hitler concocted abuses of ethnic Germans as reason to invade Poland and Czechoslovakia. Trump foments racial hostility describing refugees as criminals and drug gangs. Crude propaganda to unleash racial hatred on minorities under the ‘America First’ patriotic call. Nationalism is never a benign love of country it is more often it’s vicious flipside, easily provoked, and prepared to mete out terrible injustices on the ‘other’.
This ‘sleeping’ nasty nationalism is roused by economic misfortune when lives become insecure and people grasp at wild promises of ‘greatness’ again. It is built on nostalgia for a past ‘golden age’ of empire. In such hollow promises the struggling masses long for a saviour with the flag riding a white horse. Yes Trump. I know you have to laugh but don’t; it’s too dangerous a time for comedy.
Robinson getting hero worship for provoking Muslim intolerance seems wrong but in times of economic turmoil it finds a ready and needy audience in areas where immigration causes tensions. Tommy forgets Britain ransacked the countries and people’s of its empire to enrich a few merchants. Now when we need immigrants to work in areas like our health service, agriculture, and generally in jobs Brits. won’t do Robinson selects Pakistan crime gangs(all were imprisoned) to foment nationalist outrage. Such selective stoking of emotional patriotism quickly reveals the vicious face of ‘Britain First’ with widespread attacks on Muslims the vast majority who live in peaceful coexistence with white Britons. Robinson wants to provoke this reaction carrying the WASP flag. Pathetic, insular, small mindedness help up as loyalty to the flag.
Tommy Robinson is a far right bigot and is a member of the English Defence League who spread hate for immigrants and in their nationalism represent a threat to peace.
I find the veneration for him in this thread an outrageous breech of time served liberal attitudes and representative of Trump intolerance. Shame on all of you.
Hugh! You are a victim of the MSM shame on you!
Tommy Robinson is a respected member of the United Kingdom Independence Party and may very well be on his way to serving as MP one day. In fact, he was attacked by British Nazis during his EDL days after he burned a Nazi flag, an even that was covered by the BBC itself.
Tommy Robinson has also worked with immigrants and even Muslim immigrants in the UK who stand with him in addressing the problem of Islamic rape gangs and other crimes committed by so-called “refugees.”
Hugh Maclean- Shame on you- if you have a good future , it will be because of people like Tommy Robinson and Trump.
Regarding your 02/03/19 post above: Mr. Maclean, I hope you didn’t have breakfast this morning. Food is bad! Bad! Bad! Food can (sometimes) prompt people to overeat, which causes obesity, which causes a wide swath of illnesses leading to death. Therefore, empty your refrigerator, clear you pantry and rid all supermarkets of food products. Now! Food is evil. Evil, I say!
Are you capable of understanding that the “right” (i.e. healthy) foods eaten in appropriate proportions is not only benign, but also vital to one’s sustenance?
Now substitute “food” with “patriotism”. The quality and quantity of the “food” (“patriotism”) determines the outcome.
Being fed a “diet” of “junk food” nationalism (i.e. racial supremacy, military aggression against a HARMLESS “other”, etc.) leads to a “health” crisis. However, the other extreme, where citizens are “starved” of their national sustenance (patriotism) leads to a malnourished sovereign soul, lacking in unity and devotion.
Countries whose citizenry are too (self) righteous to be patriotic will learn a hard lesson; specifically, that not all of the “others” were truly harmless. At some point in time, probably sooner rather than later, there will be an “other” with no qualms about using its own “nationalism” to conquer those people too (self) righteous to have their own national identity.
No, we are not “citizens of the world”. That’s bullshit! We are citizens of the country in which we were born or nationalized. I am a native-born citizen of the United States of America. I unapologetically love my country. The men and women who shed their blood and give their lives to keep me, my family, and fellow countrymen safe and free get my respect … and loyalty!
A nation deprived of its patriotic soul, a unifying love of country, will soon cease to exist! May libtards never inflict that destiny upon us!
Here’s Hugh Maclean, back from a Left-Labourite Jeremy Corbyn rally, where his hero spouts raw anti-Semitism. And little Hughie presumes to lecture the rest of us on racial hatred and prejudice.
You really are a stupid pillock, Hugh.
Yes! As a cesspool of antisemitism, “The Left” has no moral high ground upon which to stand:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/jeremy-corbyns-anti-semitism-crisis
Calm down children. All Jeremy did was offer support to the Palestinians a people who had their country stolen. This reasonable position is interpreted as anti-semitism which it is not. It is objectionable that Britain through the Balfour Declaration effectively made the Palestinians homeless en masse. You dipsticks need to calm down.
Dear Mr. Maclean,
Similar benign sounding (but actually malign) comments about the illegitimacy of the nation of Israel may be removed in the future and those who make them may be banned from this forum. At a time when there are nations who are threatening to wipe Israel off the map, and could very well succeed if they banded together all of the anti-Israel sentiment in the Middle East, such comments are unacceptable. Palestine was won fairly from the Ottoman Empire in World War I and the movement of Jews after World War II was done under the authority of the United States (and for what it’s worth the United Nations).
-Evan Mantyk, the SCP Editor
Thank you, Evan Mantyk, for your FACTUAL response to the above commenter. The Society of Classical Poets supports Freedom of Speech in that poets and readers across the political spectrum are welcome to submit work, have their poetry published, and make comments. However, “comments” posing as “facts” must be correct. Lies that liable any ethnic group should not be tolerated under the mantra of “Free Speech”.
Tommy Robinson is trying to get England back to a safe stable and unracial place to live. God bless this man of sense and honour.
Thank you for responding, Corallan. We must do everything we can to draw attention to Tommy Robinson, as many in the United States remain unaware of him and his importance to the cause of freedom not only in Britain but throughout the world.
I hope you will please get others to comment on this thread.
Doctor Salemi speaks for many of us!
A fine poem.
Shared.
Thank you, Dr. Salemi and Mr. Marsh.
Splendid! My heart and prayers are with Mr Robinson. There is nothing more noble than Truth and its Defence. Your offering is exquisite in its expression of history and the many present pc attempts to trample the values of free speech. PC used to be the subject of dark humour, it’s now a threat to common sense. Time is ripe to wake the Lion from her sleep and once again raise the Standard high. Thank you Joseph Charles MacKenzie. I salute your elegant tribute.
Jan Buchanan-Medina
“Never was so much owed by so many to so few.”
St. Edward the Confessor, pray for us!
Thank you for writing it. Important to put into poetry as well as prose this brave man’s sacrifice. I shall share it on social media and I hope you can as well.
The government of the United Kingdom is officially repressive. It is, as you suggest, the office of a poet to say so.
Bravo, Joseph Charles! An incredible poem, for England and for the United States as well!
Thank you, Mr. Tessitore. Yes, it seems our national destiny has always been linked to England’s.
Tommy Robinson’s efforts on behalf of his cause would be twice as effective if he could find a way to be half as articulate as Mr. MacKenzie.
Yes, this is perhaps where a poet can be useful, although, in some ironic way, it is precisely Mr. Robinson’s effectiveness, together with that of the English Defence League and many other organizations, which provided the groundwork and inspiration for the poem.
In my native New Mexico, Mr. Robinson would be honored with a corrido, a kind of folk ballad composed by a singer-songwriter called a corridista.
Hello Sir!
A truthful poem for the sake of truth. In ancient Hindu culture, we have a saying : “Satyameva Jayate” – it means ” Truth always triumphs”.
However, this incident makes me wonder about the scarcity of good that remains in this world.
I would like to share a few lines on this degradation of humanity if I’m permitted by you.
Kind regards
That would be most interesing, Mr. Sarangi! It is a lovely expression: Satyameva Jayate
Although I have limited knowledge about politics in England, I tend to agree with some of the sentiments in this poem. However, in terms of the line which says: “But will not welcome us Americans!”, I must point out, it depends on which Americans. Yesterday my granddaughter performed at St. Mathew’s Church in London as a member of the Southern California Ambassadors of Music Choir and Orchestra. Today she flies to Paris as the next stop on a tour of Europe, after which it is on to Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Germany. I had to mention this as a personal point of pride.
What an amazing itinerary for your very talented daughter! Congratulations from New Mexico!
It’s my granddaughter, but thank you!
David, congratulations on your granddaughter’s performance. Hope she enjoys her trip.
It seems like the Ambassadors of Music are a whole program. But what a comfort to know that so many young people are embracing music at this time. This is as important a stand for civilization as any other.
Thank you, e.v. She is very talented and having a great time.
One more thing I would like to add: You’re a hell of a writer, Mr. MacKenzie!
May God bless you and all those around you, Mr. Behrens.
Yes, Joseph, some of my specific ancestors came from England, but that is not the only reason I rally to the cause of preservation of that grand state. There are many others, both here and abroad, who uphold a similar sentiment. For us, by God, it might be as simple a thing as the fact that most of us here have a commitment to preserve and extend the tradition of English literature. Here’s what some others have had to say:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-FHRYGugus
Thank you, C. B. Anderson. It does seem from your link that we can still count on Englishmen to express themselves in very often the most original if not perfectly engaging ways!
Your great love of England is evidently visceral and no doubt rests upon your broad historical knowledge, let alone your own Englishness. I can imagine that one of your many reasons for wishing to preserve the British state has something to do not only with the grand institutions she herself has preserved and developed and refined, but also that unique way in which she animates them, as if the British character were the first and foremost of all of them, the single most important institution upon which all the others depend—if you will please forgive me coming off as rather abstract.
I have had the great privilege of knowing many Englishmen of every conceivable class throughout my life. One cannot fail to notice within individuals that there is something in the national character which endears England to everyone, everywhere.
As a poet, this one fact presents quite a number of challenges, however. One must finally give up on trying to define that character, forget about discoursing on its notorious charms, and rather hope that its effects in one’s own mental construction of it might shine through in ones verses, if I may wield a wee criticism against myself.
I hope I have not altogether disappointed.
Your elegant command of the English language evident in this poem serves to reinforce the very expressiveness we stand to lose through degradation of tradition and culture.
Dear Mr. Watt,
I am greatly relieved to discern your sense of tradition and culture as, even among those who call themselves “classical” poets, I am every now and then criticized precisely for my recourse to tradition.
Pope was perhaps, as many today still insist, including myself, the best English poet of the 18th century, and even if his remarkable development of the heroic couplet never reached the perfections of his French counterparts (think —one can see even in the Epistle on Man a certain number of baroque syntactical twistings that our modern ears would find awkward indeed), there was never any reason for discarding the discipline behind them.
I don’t believe any poet did more for the English rhymed couplet that Pope. If I must set aside Homer’s Greek for any reason—and it is more and more out of simple fatigue these days—I will turn to no other English translation that Pope’s. Given that his version is in rhymed verse in a rhyme-poor language, it is absolutely remarkable that it happens to be also far more faithful to Homer’s Greek than, say, Fitzgerald’s more contemporary translation in what amounts to prose.
And so, one realizes that Pope’s development of the heroic couplet was really a great gift to the world, in the sense of being one of the finest developments in the history of modern English literature. But the Romantics, through a kind of doctrine of indiscipline—fine as many of their works may be—were unable to bear the rigors of such an arduous discipline, and so one might say that they missed a great opportunity.
Even if we are unable to emulate the individual poets of tradition, it has always seemed to me that we would do always and everywhere well to at very least acquire some part of their method in view of pleasing our modern tastes.
I have a counterpart in the world of music, by the way. The English sacred polyphonist Nicholas Wilton of London. This greatest of English contemporary composers freely takes from every shelf of England’s musical pantry, as it were, with surprisingly effective results of rarest beauty and elegance. Just when one thinks that he is reproducing William Byrd, one very quickly catches oneself in discerning Wilton’s originality which is informed as much by Mozart as by Palestrina and, even more important, by his own personal sense of the sacred in music.
To address your extremely important statement about the relationship of expression to culture and tradition, I feel that culture and tradition are degraded primarily by lack of use.
Thank you for your always insightful remarks.
Congratulations, you wrote a poem bemoaning society’s “decay” (read: the declining supremacy of white people) and the imprisonment of a white supremacist. Robinson lead the BNP for a period; a party that denies the holocaust. Oh, how brave of you to defend him!
I am forced to ask… how the hell did this get published?
Mr. Mantyk, with all due respect, come on. You can do better than putting stuff out there like this. People will associate your website with politics (and the far-right) rather than with poetry. And that would be a shame.
This poem itself is nice, don’t get me wrong. Bravo to Mackenzie for his command of the English language. But again I wonder: what the hell? The stark contrast between the beauty of your verse and the grotequeness of your ideology… I can’t be the only person repulsed by this poem’s message, yes? Because nobody has issued anything but praise in the comments here.
All in all, this website would be better off if it avoided straying into the political.
Ouch, just reread that. Let me try again.
I say this in a civil manner: I would like for this website to try and avoid the political sphere, because it tends to distract from the verse itself in a negative way. Especially if it those political beliefs approach the fringe. Or at least change the thumbnail for these posts. The juxtaposition of modern photos on poems like this vs pretty paintings everywhere else is odd, I think. I suppose I direct those comments to Mr. Mantyk. I otherwise enjoy this website very much, and think it’s moving in a good direction, even if I disagree with (some of) the political poems.
Mr. Mackenzie: I am fond of your poetic mission as defined by your website, I simply strongly disagree with your political ideology as expressed here. But what am I going to do arguing with a stranger online? I apologize for responding in a heated manner.
You might find it interesting that even The London Times (as well as many other news outlets) have vindicated the British National Party’s work in exposing the problem of immigration in the United Kingdom:
https://bnp.org.uk/media-bnp-was-right-on-muslim-rape-gangs/
May I please suggest that you might appreciate the simple eloquence of the man that Tommy Robinson really is, as most evident in his speech at Oxford:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YQ94jFg_4A
Thanks, Mr McK, for this link. I had seen bits of Mr Robinson’s Oxford Union visit, mainly the Q and A. This gives the deeper backstory to his stance.
One of the things we notice about the left is their inability to present literary discourse of any kind. Your comment is no exception, alas.
Anonymous, this is probably the main reason why SCP’s publishes more right-wing poetry: Many people who prefer “classical” to “contemporary” also appreciate tradition from many perspectives, ranging from politics to culture. For example, I prefer historic homes over modern ones, and write poetry from a roll top desk. Writers espousing liberal politics prefer the opposite; “contemporary” over “classical” and write modern “poetry”, a style usually inconsistent with “formal verse” criteria. However (unlike Antifa) neither SCP nor Evan believe in censorship. Therefore, if you’d like to submit “left-wing” poetry IN FORMAL VERSE, go for it.
There is also a fascinating subtext to your astute observation, E. V., in that form is very much related to beauty which, as a transcendental property of being, is in turn interchangeable with truth.
It’s five in the morning in Poland. I have dear friends who support Tommy Robinson, and some who think him a fraud with no sense of British Law, as his filming in front of court was illegal.
I find your poem well-made. I’d like more of the same kind, poems with gonads.
…
What a fagtard you are! Who cares what you think? You are a cowardly nameless clown. Liberals are not even human beings. We have special FEMA camps prepared especially for you in Northern Alaska where you’ll be turned out nightly by Black Lives Matter Prisons guards. Think about it, libtard!
Dear Mr. MacKenzie,
Thank you for your rousing and timely poem!
Dear . . .,
Thank you for your civil response and thank you for reading. I am certainly open to running a better image if there is one available.
It seems to me that Mr. Robinson is brave. He and other UK residents are being denied a basic right. Socialism, the first phase of communism, has robbed people of their common sense in the West and there should be international outcry (https://www.theepochtimes.com/how-the-specter-of-communism-is-ruling-our-world). The Society has a duty to give classical style poets a forum to speak out on significant topics of our day and age, which of course include politics and of course include journalists being jailed for refusing to bow to strongarm socialist policies.
Mr. Mantyk: thank you for your civility as well. I understand your rationale for publishing this poem now. As for the image, I have no concrete suggestions. Perhaps a painting connected thematically? Of someone being jailed? It’s not truly an issue, I’d just like to see it keep to the classical aesthetic. Keep up the good work!
Mr Mantyk is one of the foremost editors of fine poetry in the nation, together with Trinacria, both of which are highly recommended.
Dear Mr. Mantyk,
I applaud your keeping the unfortunate comment of the nameless attacker (supra).
It reads like the last breath of a beast that died on the night of November 4, 2016. Even better, it bears all the marks of the hooded, masked, and faceless liberal.
As for my ideology, its most perfect expression will not be found in any of my poems.
For, my ideology is the crucifix.
Neither left nor right, but up.
Magnificent! I have been following Tommy Robinson’s exploits for several years now due to his association with Info Wars and Alex Jones. It appears that England has become so corrupt with the pedophile royal class that the people who shine a light on the abuse of children are doomed to spend more time in jail than the very ones who they unmasked. I am glad that you are aware of the situation and have such an excellent insight into the larger cogs at work that contribute to such a dramatic miscarriage of justice. Another excellent work.
This is very well said. I thank you, kind sir, for your well-informed appreciation.
To …
Like Antifa terrorists, you prefer to keep your identity masked. How courageous.
You want a website to “avoid the political sphere.” And yet it’s a sure bet that if a pro-feminist or anti-Trump or pro-immigrant poem were published here, you wouldn’t have made a peep. Why not be totally honest and admit that when you say “political sphere” you mean anything that expresses a viewpoint contrary to the pabulum of left-liberal orthodoxy?
When you ask “How the hell did this get published?” you are essentially asking why censorship wasn’t imposed on a viewpoint that you have decided is “fringe.” Is that the kind of liberalism and tolerance and diversity that you are pushing? It sure doesn’t sound like what Voltaire or Jefferson would have argued.
I’m trying to be civil too. But it is precisely this sort of blinkered, reflexively left-liberal, censorious, anti-rightist ideology that is enraging thousands of Americans and Europeans, and that is making Tommy Robinson into a martyr.
We aren’t “the fringe” anymore. Deal with it.
Remarkable also is the inability of the intellectually-crippled left to articulate a literary argument—something which is impossible if one’s entire vocabulary consists of only the two words “racist” and “Islamophobe.”
That response is perfect.
Thank you, E.V.. The poem is trending once again on social media as we approach the Brexit deadline.
Several thoughts somewhat behind the curve:
1. I support Mr. Mantyk for his decision (and reasons given) to publish Mr. MacKenzie’s poem.
2. I am disappointed that some who choose to express disagreement to some of the strong (conservative) political positions expressed in poems and comments feel the need to post their comments under pseudonyms, or “Anonymous,” or “Mr. . . .” My disappointment is both with those who seek to hide behind such anonymity but also with the site itself, where such dissenting opinions and their authors (whether expressed in comments or in poetry) have been repeatedly subjected to a level of mean-spirited abuse seemingly calculated to cause all but the the most stubborn or sadistic to walk away from the SCP site in disgust, kicking the dust from their sandals as they make their exit. Having experienced it myself, I can affirm that personal attacks and uncivil intimidation are an existential reality in this otherwise collegial community.
3. Having made an earlier comment in this thread I do not want “Mr. . . . ” to think that I was in any way expressing “praise” for the content of Mr. MacKenzie’s poem or the person to whom it was addressed. I only complimented the poet on his ability to articulate Mr. Robinson’s cause far better than Mr. Robinson has been able to do.
4. While I concede that I am concerned about some of the same things that concern Mr. Robinson I do not personally find him to be particularly worthy of Mr. MacKenzie’s poem. Out of respect for the site I will keep my reasons for this to myself.
5. I will, however, say that I find Mr. MacKenzie’s support of both Robinson and the EDL somewhat curious insofar as over five years ago Robinson told the BBC that he was dismayed to discover that the EDL’s ranks had been swollen with racist and neo-Nazi supporters. Several months later he distanced himself from the EDL altogether because of his concerns over the “dangers of far-right extremism.”
6. I only add that I wholeheartedly affirm Mr. MacKenzie’s closing words and gladly claim them as my own:
“As for my ideology, its most perfect expression will not be found in any of my poems.
For, my ideology is the crucifix.
Neither left nor right, but up.”
The reality is that anyone group who opposes the Islamo-globalist establishment is either infiltrated directly by George Soros’s poseurs and provocateurs (one of international communism’s oldest tactics) or subject to propaganda usually taking the form of “their ranks are swollen by Nazis,” something which was said of none other than the Republican party in the United States.
That Mr. Robinson may have witnessed such an infiltration in various groups in no way diminishes either his work or that of the EDL or any other of the many movements now arising to meet this urgency. The EDL’s mission could not be more clearly stated on the home page of their website and has absolutely not the least thing to do with Nazism of any kind.
Indeed, the contrary is true: Every ideological doctrine promoted by the National Socialist German Workers’ Party since 1922 has become the European Union’s official policy down to taking the side of Barack Obama for what amounts to the elimination of Israel, Hitler’s dream of an inter-European financial system designed exclusively for Germany’s benefit, and the depraving of society through the normalization of sexual perversion.
One of the great successes of EU and American leftist propaganda is precisely the raising of voices against popular national movements for the least “taint” in their numbers.
And yet, there is not a single group or subgroup within these popular national movements that have committed anything remotely as grave or as numerous as the myriad unspeakable crimes committed by pseudo-refugees flooding into Europe, to include actual beheadings in the public square, endless knife attacks in London, terror attacks in the ancient capitols of Europe, genital mutilation, human trafficking, and institutional child sexual exploitation…
…crimes which the EU and the American left have tacitly but overtly condoned by their official protection of the perpetrators as a privileged class of untouchables—in view of an orchestrated, deliberate, and coordinated attempt to eliminate Christianity from the face of the earth.
And THAT is why Tommy Robinson is important.
Not only that, Mr. MacKenzie–
I don’t have to be civil to demon-possessed leftists. I’d rather scrape their putrefying remains off the the streets and bury them as close to Hell as I can dig.
…, Sue me for being uncivil.
Sheesh. I did not express any personal opinion on the matter but only referenced Tommy Robinson’s own comments. If you don’t agree with what he said I respectfully suggest that you direct your comments in his direction.
Oh, no disrespect intended, Mr. Tweedie. The point was simply that what was said is unrelated to what Tommy Robinson has come to symbolize for the vast majority of his fellow Englishmen. In other words, as a poet, I am concerned with symbols infinitely more than particulars of the men who embody them. I naively assumed that my poem would be read in this way.
If anything, I thank you for the occasion to answer an objection.
I have no problem with “Tommy Robinson” being a symbol for something larger than himself. The process by which an individual becomes a larger-than-life symbol is quite fascinating. Think of Guy Fawkes, or Ned Kelly, or Carrie Nation, for example. None of these rose to any great position of power or influence but, through their very notoriety, became cultural icons, representing movements and historical events larger and more complex than their own lives actually embraced. I accept the distinction you have made between Tommy Robinson, the person, and Tommy Robinson. the now-iconic symbol.
To all,
Why would anyone ever want to eliminate political discussion from the comment section of this website. This was the most spirited intellectual exchange here ever! And thank you, Joseph S., for nailing that sniper to his own coffin. And Evan, let not your heart be troubled. There are a lot of good and intelligent people here who appreciate an open (if unpopular) forum. I’d tell Mr. X to go to hell, but he’s already there.
Really, we should all be grateful to you, C. B. Anderson, for reminding us of the pleasure of lively discourse, an art which is all too often forgotten.
And yes, for razor sharp sword-work, it never gets any better than Joseph Salemi, to be sure!
All the best to you!
Mr X’s earlier comment typifies a problem: that anyone who opposes – in any shape or form – the idea of mass immigration and what it brings is dubbed racist, pro-Nazi, etc. Tommy Robinson has his critics, but at least he never abused vulnerable girls as the grooming gangs he exposed did. The fact is that those gangs flourished for years because the authorities were afraid that if they cracked down on them, they would get a similar response to the one that Mr X gave to this poem. Also: when did politics not belong in poetry? Read W H Auden, W B Yeats and a lot of others.
For me, this was a well-written poem. I don’t agree 100% with all of it, but it highlighted the real problem, of a clash of cultures, that is only getting worse in much of the western world.
I appreciate, Mr. Whippman, your ability to put matters into perspective.
And there is also the theological perspective. God summons all kinds of men for all kinds of reasons to all kinds of tasks.
The man of whom we speak sits in prison in fear of his very life. This is a man with children and a family, a man who grew up in Muslim-occupied Luton, harassed every day, beaten, spit upon, threatened with violence and death.
Perhaps it is time to think about the virtues of such a man and ask that question which is most conducive to one’s humility: Have I been gifted by my Creator with the same virtues—or are mine by far the lesser?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YQ94jFg_4A
This corrupt and venal British government wants Tommy Robinson to be killed in prison by Muslims. That is their intention. All we can do now is pray for the poor man, and remember him as a hero of the resistance.
And this is what we call a “Tory” government! God help the English people.
Points taken sir. This was an interesting poem to read, and it sparked off an interesting debate.
Once again, Joseph, you have written a masterpiece. If some on the political left are in a twist, perhaps it’s because they feel threatened by a talented, right-wing poet. If you don’t mind my asking, I’m curious: How long did it take to write this tribute to Tommy Robinson?
Well, there is a question as to whether I possess any talent at all because I always beg God for my words and feel everything I possess I have received. I began all my works in prayer with the acknowledgment that I possess nothing and am nothing.
I doubt that I can answer your question to your satisfaction, E. V. as I have never thought to time myself. If it should be of interest to you, I can say that I wrote the “Letter to England” in one sitting in the course of my morning coffee, after my spiritual duties.
Oh my! Joseph Charles MacKenzie, I am beyond impressed! (When I asked you how long it took to compose “Letter to England: For Tommy Robinson”, I didn’t mean in minutes/hours. I meant in weeks/months.) The fact that you did this in one sitting is beyond remarkable! Yes! You definitely do have talent, but it is also very modest of you to acknowledge that all blessings, including talent, come from God. Thank you for sharing your gift.
Mr. Mackenzie’s “Letter to England” is a spirited commentary on his vision of England. Structurally it divides into three sections of 12, 18, and 12, iambic pentametre couplets. The poem opens with a nice rhetorical flourish, “but yesterday”, repeated thrice, and proceeds with striking gusto. Throughout, the poem is remarkable for its admixture of contemporary and ancient diction. Though Mr. MacKenzie mentions Pope in his comments, his heroic couplets are, though not totally unlike Pope’s (and Dryden’s) couplets, particularly in the realm of “public poetry”, rather more like Shakespeare’s lines in his historical plays (especially at the opening). Though I would not call it a masterpiece for Mr. MacKenzie’s historical flaws and the occasional metrical shortening, as in “Come forth in splendor, pow’r, and might”, the overall effect of the poem is invigourating. The poem is really not about Tommy Robinson, as was my smaller, more focused, less rousing, dodeca “The Imprisonment of Tommy Robinson”, and his dedication and mention at the end of section II are rather anticlimactic, when one considers Mr. Mackenzie’s larger, overarching vision. There are many excellent lines in the poem, from echoes of Churchill and Brooke to incisive couplets like the following: “Would you let England topple on the brink/ Whilst petty deskmen dictate what you think?” In short, I concur wholeheartedly with Mr. Watt, Mr. Mackenzie demonstrates here in his “Letter to England” an “elegant command of…English”.
I would like everyone to know that I write for the toughest, most difficult audience in Christendom: the readers and poets of the SCP!
It is important that Mr. Acrewe correctly read my title, as others had mistaken the poem as a piece about Tommy Robinson when it was in fact for him. The poem is rather about the English people and their century-long struggle against German socialism which continues even today.
Angela Merkle is Hitler without the mustache. The EU is the Fourth Reich.
As for the shortening of words like “power,” I do wish that, when I was auditioning actors for the recording of the Sonnets for Christ the King, that I had not come across so many who voiced the “w,” giving the word two syllables, which in classic recitation (think Gielgud’s recording of Shakespeare’s sonnets) never happens.
This poem was meant to be recited, so my shortening of that word is the stage instruction of disgruntled poet.
Mr. Acrewe may also be right in identifying the style of the couplets as rather more in Shakespeare’s realm than Pope’s, causing me to go back this morning to the Agincourt speech in Henry V, although I confess that I did my best to emulate neither Pope nor Shakespeare (one does not have to in borrowing their techniques). Still, I find myself unable to disagree with Mr. Acrewe on this point, as the third part of the poem certainly has recourse to Elizabethan diction, precisely in honor of England’s golden age.
What a wonderful poem!
You have captured so well – albeit from half a hemisphere distant – the way millions of English men and women think and feel. Many of these are reluctant to voice their feelings, but this does not mean those feelings don’t exist.
We will not venture further into criticism, but we can add that in matters of fact and implication, your work stands in no need of qualification or correction.
Thank you for your contribution. We have been pleased to commend it to our members.
On behalf of all our readers and poets, I thank you for this kind intervention on the part of the English Defence League’s media department, including the confirmation that I am not in need of qualification or correction in matters of fact or implication.
The ever shifting relations among the British movement’s historical players—ephemeral minutiae compared the glorious successes the movement has achieved as a whole—are stale news indeed. The growing campaign initiated by the EDL many years ago is internationalizing at a rapid pace.
Anglophone poets throughout the world have a natural obligation to support the English Defence League in union with its many allies and associates who at the present moment are ever growing in numbers. For, as seen in the many intelligent criticisms posted in this thread, the debt we Americans owe to the literary history and traditions of the British peoples can never be fully estimated or repaid.
In our commitment to the continuation of those traditions, let our literary defence of Britain—whose freedom is the surest guarantee of our own—be always vibrant, meaningful, and true.
Though Mr. MacKenzie thought Mr. Acrewe was noting the shortening of the word “pow’r”, I don’t believe he was; after all, elision and contraction are not only entirely acceptable; but there is a natural tendency to condense the Englinguage in all kinds of ways. No, rather he was pointing out the line was one foot shorter than all the rest, making it, though forceful, an iambic tetrametre.
But as for the antagonism to Deutschland (Germany), that is a bridge too far for those who are fascinated by German culture in many ways. Remember, in the same way that Angela Merkel may be lacking in moral insight, so too, Mr. MacKenzie mentions May, Sturgeon and Corbyn. A nation is not merely its leaders at any one point in time.
Observe some of the figures in the last few hundred years in German music, for example. Though Händel came to England, he was part of the German linguistic culture, as were Bach, Glück, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelsohn, Schumann, Wagner, the Strausses, German-born Offenbach, Brahms, Mahler, etc. It is only a provincial insularity that could not see the greatness in the great body of work that came from such individuals.
The same holds true in other fields, as, for example, mathematics: Leibniz, the Swiss Bernoullis and Euler, Gauss, Jacobi, Dirichlet, Riemann, Weierstrass, Cantor, Kronecker, Kummer, Frobenius, Steiner, Möbius, Plücker, Grassmann, Klein, Cantor, Hilbert, etc. There is a richness in German culture that, if one writes it off, one loses a great deal indeed. In the great body of Indo-European languages, English is, after all, a Germanic language.
No one is attacking German Kultur, neither MacKenzie nor anyone else. Where do you get that crazy idea?
We are simply saying that the E.U., dominated by a smug left-liberal ideologue like Merkel, is nothing but the Third Reich with a Smiley-face button. And Merkel, like almost all continental Europeans, is by nature an arrogant statist. Unfortunately there are too many degenerate Britons who now have the same attitude.
Talking about Bach and Beethoven is absurd in this argument.
Not everyone is able to read or interpret poetry, as Mr. Diebes’s nonsensical and factually incorrect comment shows.
Of course, jealousy is blinding.