jambon
9:28 AM on 09/04/2013
What happened to you representing the racist BNP Dr Andrew Emerson?? When you got outed as a member, you said this:
“I’m a political animal. I intend to continue as a political activist for the BNP and hope to represent them in further elections so I’m entirely happy with it”
Now off that bandwagon are we? Jumping onto a contentious topic like housing to exploit for your racist views?
If we had a decreasing population, how would we pay for the pensions of those coming up to retirement? Hopefully like you in a few years? So everything is down to immigration is it? No population increase due to anything else other than immigration? Even the Daily Mail says it’s only 55% of growth in population and that is highly centred in London, so we’d still need more houses regardless. But that’s not part of your very important agenda.
I do hope no-one falls for your trick of being anti-development (which fits in very nicely with the Chichester Observer – what with it never leaving the front page), when in fact you are a former/current BNP member who has some very very dodgy views.
Dr Emerson replies
This is not about me but about saving our city from the desecration that the Council has planned for it.
However, since you have chosen to distract attention from the issue in question by personalizing the debate, I shall say this: I never made any secret about my membership of the BNP (I stood as a candidate for them in the 2005 general election within a few months of joining the party) and so I was never “outed” as a BNP member.
The protection of our natural environment is not a bandwagon as far as I am concerned, but rather an abiding concern. I opposed building on greenfield sites when I was in the BNP and before that when I was with the Labour Party. I have always had the courage of my convictions and put country before party. If more politicians had the backbone necessary to do the same then the country would not be in the mess that it is in.
Do you imagine that immigrants do not also grow old and claim a pension from the state? If the population declined then the number of elderly people would also decline, as would the number of the unemployed.
As for that fount of wisdom the Daily Mail, they acknowledge that more than half of the increase in population between 2001 and 2011 is a direct result of immigration and that most of the rest is also (indirectly) a result of it because of the very high birthrate of certain groups of immigrants who share the same religion.
The remainder of the increased demand for housing is attributable to successive Lib-Lab-Con governments’ anti-marriage and anti-family policies resulting in an increase in one-adult households.
Your definition of “dodgy views” seems to be any which you find yourself unable to rebut. Ad hominem attacks on me are no substitute for the rational argument which you evidently lack. You have my sympathy.
[ENDS]
The foregoing reply was posted by me on Tuesday afternoon, 9 April. It stayed up for a few hours before both it and all of my earlier comments on the Chichester Observer’s web site were deleted by the paper’s staff. I can’t think why. Unless they were too good.
As the candidate of a patriotic party, I have been debarred from posting further comments on the newspaper’s web site.
However, the comments by jambon and others impugning me were, naturally, left up by the Observer.
Wednesday, 10 April 2013
Thursday, 28 February 2013
British Patriotic League founded
Britannica and Patria have jointly agreed to form an alliance of patriotic and unionist parties, to be called the British Patriotic League.
The aim of the League is to promote co-operation and goodwill between parties that uphold the union of the United Kingdom and embrace traditional British culture and values, both within the United Kingdom and overseas.
The League invites applications for affiliation (for which no fee is payable) from genuine patriotic, unionist and nationalist parties.
Charlie Baillie
Leader
Britannica
BritannicaParty@gmx.co.uk
Ian Johnson
Leader
Patria
contact@patria-uk.org
The aim of the League is to promote co-operation and goodwill between parties that uphold the union of the United Kingdom and embrace traditional British culture and values, both within the United Kingdom and overseas.
The League invites applications for affiliation (for which no fee is payable) from genuine patriotic, unionist and nationalist parties.
Charlie Baillie
Leader
Britannica
BritannicaParty@gmx.co.uk
Ian Johnson
Leader
Patria
contact@patria-uk.org
Thursday, 31 January 2013
With malice toward none
Speaking in a purely personal capacity, I should like to put on record my good wishes to each and every nationalist party, even "inappropriate" ones, whose leadership contains Holocaust deniers (and/or former Holocaust deniers), for example.
Such deluded individuals are more to be pitied than scorned. "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). They are entitled to exercise their right of free speech, regardless of the damage they do (or have done) to the nationalist cause. At least, they are so entitled under English, Scottish and Northern Irish law. The law of some of our so-called European partners is a horse of a different colour.
Not that the general public pays much attention to people who deny the Holocaust. They tend to be more focused upon their own present and future than upon the rapidly receding past. Nevertheless, there surely can be few who, upon mature reflection, would feel confident in electing someone whose finger might one day hover over the nuclear red button, if they knew that individual had once publicly denied the Holocaust.
The crucial question is: can one trust the judgement of such a person in other, more important, matters?
Such deluded individuals are more to be pitied than scorned. "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). They are entitled to exercise their right of free speech, regardless of the damage they do (or have done) to the nationalist cause. At least, they are so entitled under English, Scottish and Northern Irish law. The law of some of our so-called European partners is a horse of a different colour.
Not that the general public pays much attention to people who deny the Holocaust. They tend to be more focused upon their own present and future than upon the rapidly receding past. Nevertheless, there surely can be few who, upon mature reflection, would feel confident in electing someone whose finger might one day hover over the nuclear red button, if they knew that individual had once publicly denied the Holocaust.
The crucial question is: can one trust the judgement of such a person in other, more important, matters?
Four legs good, two legs bad!
Rather a good leaflet by Solidarity. Credit where credit is due. Mind you, the piggy in the picture is a pretty fair representation of the great majority of MEPs, of every party.
There is something about the European 'parliament' that panders to the venality of politicians.
I know what it is! Everything about it.
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Curiouser and curiouser
Dr Andrew Emerson is an English mental health nurse and nationalist politician. He demands "equal treatment for the ethnic majority".[1]
A quondam member of the BNP, Emerson was expelled for publicly censuring its leadership, whereupon he helped to found a new party, named Patria (Latin for "Homeland").[2]
Officially, Patria is "neither left nor right, but patriotic";[3] variations of this tagline are common among nationalist parties — the English Democrats, for example, have used the slogan "not left, not right, just English!"[4]
In its manifesto Patria promises to end immigration by "ethnic aliens" and to withdraw from the EU without a prior referendum. Patria pledges to deport "foreign criminals, illegal immigrants and failed and bogus asylum seekers" and inter alia, to repeal the Race Relations Act, 1965, the Human Rights Act, 1998, the Climate Change Act, 2008 and the Equality Act, 2010, as well as to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights. Patria also promises the banning of halal and kosher slaughter and a halt to the commissioning of new mosques, as well as the restoration of the death penalty for murder and treason.[5]
The Patria website features a number of articles by Emerson, containing his curious ramblings about "the liberation of our people from the yoke of alien oppression".[6] Emerson also runs a personal blog with a number of interesting posts, such as copypaste of a lengthy article from American Renaissance about the "Jewish agenda"[7] and a Telegraph article about prehistoric Britain given the new title "The pre-eminent genius of the White race".[8]
"Racism is a made up word. It’s code for anti-white, anti-English", says Emerson. "The people who accuse us of being racist can’t explain what they mean by the word."[2]
Emerson's argument appears to be that the words racism and racist are nothing more than stigmatizing labels to be attached to an opponent's views or behaviour, but never one's own. The function of the labelling, of course, being an appeal to emotion rather than to reason: name-calling as a substitute for rational debate.
RationalWiki
A quondam member of the BNP, Emerson was expelled for publicly censuring its leadership, whereupon he helped to found a new party, named Patria (Latin for "Homeland").[2]
Officially, Patria is "neither left nor right, but patriotic";[3] variations of this tagline are common among nationalist parties — the English Democrats, for example, have used the slogan "not left, not right, just English!"[4]
In its manifesto Patria promises to end immigration by "ethnic aliens" and to withdraw from the EU without a prior referendum. Patria pledges to deport "foreign criminals, illegal immigrants and failed and bogus asylum seekers" and inter alia, to repeal the Race Relations Act, 1965, the Human Rights Act, 1998, the Climate Change Act, 2008 and the Equality Act, 2010, as well as to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights. Patria also promises the banning of halal and kosher slaughter and a halt to the commissioning of new mosques, as well as the restoration of the death penalty for murder and treason.[5]
The Patria website features a number of articles by Emerson, containing his curious ramblings about "the liberation of our people from the yoke of alien oppression".[6] Emerson also runs a personal blog with a number of interesting posts, such as copypaste of a lengthy article from American Renaissance about the "Jewish agenda"[7] and a Telegraph article about prehistoric Britain given the new title "The pre-eminent genius of the White race".[8]
"Racism is a made up word. It’s code for anti-white, anti-English", says Emerson. "The people who accuse us of being racist can’t explain what they mean by the word."[2]
Emerson's argument appears to be that the words racism and racist are nothing more than stigmatizing labels to be attached to an opponent's views or behaviour, but never one's own. The function of the labelling, of course, being an appeal to emotion rather than to reason: name-calling as a substitute for rational debate.
RationalWiki
Wednesday, 16 January 2013
Social engineering at its most pernicious
Mass immigration of ethnic aliens from the Third World and Eastern Europe depresses the wages and working conditions of our own English people. And this betrayal of our people has been deliberately engineered by the political Establishment. It has not happened by accident.
Protest against it, by organizing politically, as Patria has and the ‘mainstream’ media, who sell more newspapers by publicizing the immigration scandal, will refer to you as “far right”.
Opposition to the colonization of our country, by destitute hordes of ethnic aliens from the three corners of the world, is not a left-right issue at all, since immigration reached its highest point at more than half a million annually under the current coalition government and both they and UKIP are committed to continuing the race-replacement of our people.
No, it is an issue which transcends the conventional left-right political divide. It is the most fundamental question of all: what kind of future does our people have if we lose our homeland, our patria?
English Britons are now in the minority in our capital city, London, in Slough, in Luton and in Leicester. Demographic projections tell us that we will be a minority in Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester by the end of this decade, if current trends continue.
Our children are in a minority in more than 1,600 schools throughout England and the number of mosques in Britain approaches 2,000. If our people are institutionally discriminated against now, as they are, in every walk of life, in education, in housing, in the courts and in opportunities for jobs, training and promotion, what will it be like for our children and grandchildren? What future do they have to look forward to?
The situation is grave. There is no denying it. But it is not hopeless. If only those of our compatriots who see the problem and are sufficiently concerned, decide to act, by joining or supporting a genuinely patriotic party like Patria, whose leadership is of proven character and untainted by the corruption and cronyism of the past, our homeland, our children’s birthright, may yet be saved.
Patria is as yet only small but it is growing fast and it has a big heart. We eschew petty internecine sniping, which historically has been the bane of nationalism, for the counterproductive self-indulgence it is and offer the hand of friendship to every other nationalist party, without exception.
Every party of British nationalism has more in common with every other British nationalist party, than with any non-nationalist party. And the gravity of the situation facing our people demands that anyone with pretension to genuine leadership validate the pretension, by helping to form the alliance of patriotic parties which is required if any patriotic party is to flourish. It should be no consolation to any patriot that although their own party failed, so too did every other nationalist party. On the contrary, it should not matter which patriotic party succeeds, provided at least one does.
The task is a monumental one, but it is achievable. Our forefathers faced challenges as great, or even greater and proved their mettle by overcoming them, together, like the band of brothers they were.
We can, we must, do no less today.
From the web site of Patria (www.patria-uk.org), the party of nationalist patriots
Protest against it, by organizing politically, as Patria has and the ‘mainstream’ media, who sell more newspapers by publicizing the immigration scandal, will refer to you as “far right”.
Opposition to the colonization of our country, by destitute hordes of ethnic aliens from the three corners of the world, is not a left-right issue at all, since immigration reached its highest point at more than half a million annually under the current coalition government and both they and UKIP are committed to continuing the race-replacement of our people.
No, it is an issue which transcends the conventional left-right political divide. It is the most fundamental question of all: what kind of future does our people have if we lose our homeland, our patria?
English Britons are now in the minority in our capital city, London, in Slough, in Luton and in Leicester. Demographic projections tell us that we will be a minority in Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester by the end of this decade, if current trends continue.
Our children are in a minority in more than 1,600 schools throughout England and the number of mosques in Britain approaches 2,000. If our people are institutionally discriminated against now, as they are, in every walk of life, in education, in housing, in the courts and in opportunities for jobs, training and promotion, what will it be like for our children and grandchildren? What future do they have to look forward to?
The situation is grave. There is no denying it. But it is not hopeless. If only those of our compatriots who see the problem and are sufficiently concerned, decide to act, by joining or supporting a genuinely patriotic party like Patria, whose leadership is of proven character and untainted by the corruption and cronyism of the past, our homeland, our children’s birthright, may yet be saved.
Patria is as yet only small but it is growing fast and it has a big heart. We eschew petty internecine sniping, which historically has been the bane of nationalism, for the counterproductive self-indulgence it is and offer the hand of friendship to every other nationalist party, without exception.
Every party of British nationalism has more in common with every other British nationalist party, than with any non-nationalist party. And the gravity of the situation facing our people demands that anyone with pretension to genuine leadership validate the pretension, by helping to form the alliance of patriotic parties which is required if any patriotic party is to flourish. It should be no consolation to any patriot that although their own party failed, so too did every other nationalist party. On the contrary, it should not matter which patriotic party succeeds, provided at least one does.
The task is a monumental one, but it is achievable. Our forefathers faced challenges as great, or even greater and proved their mettle by overcoming them, together, like the band of brothers they were.
We can, we must, do no less today.
From the web site of Patria (www.patria-uk.org), the party of nationalist patriots
Saturday, 5 January 2013
Monday, 31 December 2012
A Nationalist Concordat for 2013
As we come to the end of an eventful 2012 and face a possibly even more eventful 2013, it behooves us all, as patriots, to take stock politically and to look back, in order to see what lessons may be learnt from the year that is ending, for the year that is about to begin.
I would suggest that each of the patriotic parties, excluding UKIP, which remains a pariah for every principled patriot (because of its blackballing of former members of nationalist parties, as well as its support for mass non-white immigration) should agree not to stand candidates against one another in elections.
In view of the fact that at the last local elections the BNP fielded fewer than 150 candidates throughout the entire country and all of its nationalist (again excluding UKIP) rival parties collectively fielded even fewer candidates than did the BNP, it seems most likely that there will be many more seats and more authorities, without a single nationalist candidate, than there will be with one.
Under such circumstances, it makes no sense whatsoever for nationalist candidates of different parties to stand against one another.
Indeed, rather than stand against another nationalist candidate it would be preferable to withdraw from a particular contest and allow the other party's candidate a clear run.
We need all of the nationalist parties to do their bit, however inadequately, until such time as circumstances permit a coalescence of all (or almost all) remaining nationalist forces.
Sunday, 23 December 2012
Christmas Greetings from New Leadership
A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my readers, past, present and future.
An Open Letter to Compatriots
Dear Compatriot
Thank you for visiting the web site of Patria, the party of nationalist patriots.
Patria successfully registered with the Electoral Commission on 9 November 2012 and we held our hugely successful inauguratory meeting on 10 December, in the New Forest, a few days after our web site went live.
Like a healthy baby, Patria is growing fast and like every party, we are only as strong as our members and our supporters choose to make us.
Patria will be holding a series of open meetings, up and down the country, starting early in the New Year and running up to the local elections, at which we shall field a number of candidates.
A year’s membership of Patria is a real bargain at only £10 and dual membership with another party is permissible, so please join today, online, via the Memberships page at www.patria-uk.org and help to make Patria the great success it is destined to become.
My colleagues and I look forward to meeting you in the New Year, where great things await.
Yours Sincerely
Andrew
Dr A Emerson
Treasurer
Patria
PS You could help Patria even more by forwarding this message to every patriot in your address book. Let’s help Patria’s message of hope go viral!
Sunday, 9 December 2012
Patria makes the news
Nationalists up and down the country are talking about the new kid on the block, the new look nationalist party, Patria, our stylish web site and our launch meeting, tomorrow evening, at a prestigious venue in the New Forest.
If the Green Arrow's British Resistance web site is nationalism's equivalent of The Sun, then Patria just made the front page with a very good article published earlier today, which you may read here.
If the Green Arrow's British Resistance web site is nationalism's equivalent of The Sun, then Patria just made the front page with a very good article published earlier today, which you may read here.
Saturday, 8 December 2012
Patria's web site goes live!
Patria's classy new web site is now running live, at www.patria-uk.org. Just click on the first link shown on the list of Useful Links on the right of this page and you'll be taken there.
Don't forget to leave a comment.
Don't forget to leave a comment.
Thursday, 29 November 2012
Patria, the party of nationalist patriots
Well, here we are, at the beginning of winter and the preparations for the launch of a new and respectable, broad church ethno-nationalist party are almost complete, after much hard work.
The party has been registered with the Electoral Commission. Our bank account is being set up, as is the web site, as you read these words. The bespoke plastic membership cards are due to arrive at Party HQ tomorrow, by special delivery.
The party will be holding its inauguratory meeting at a prestigious location near the south coast, on the evening of Monday 10 December.
What are Patria's policies? Who is its leader? Why not come along to the meeting, at which these and many other questions will be answered by our joint leadership team?
You will be sure of a warm nationalist welcome (and a buffet) if you do. Further details may be obtained by sending an e-mail to draemerson@yahoo.co.uk, or, alternatively, phoning me on 01243 533932.
The party has been registered with the Electoral Commission. Our bank account is being set up, as is the web site, as you read these words. The bespoke plastic membership cards are due to arrive at Party HQ tomorrow, by special delivery.
The party will be holding its inauguratory meeting at a prestigious location near the south coast, on the evening of Monday 10 December.
What are Patria's policies? Who is its leader? Why not come along to the meeting, at which these and many other questions will be answered by our joint leadership team?
You will be sure of a warm nationalist welcome (and a buffet) if you do. Further details may be obtained by sending an e-mail to draemerson@yahoo.co.uk, or, alternatively, phoning me on 01243 533932.
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Friday, 23 November 2012
Marriage fights back!
Panic in Downing Street over redefining marriage
Dear Marriage supporter
According to this morning’s newspapers, panicking Downing Street spin doctors have suggested David Cameron would rush through plans to redefine marriage, with talk of MPs getting their first opportunity to vote in the New Year. But since then, other Government spokespeople have hurriedly denied the legislation will be fast-tracked.
We will wait and see. We always knew such claims could be made, because we knew that our campaign was hitting home very effectively. We knew we were making headway and that the Government could panic like this.
According to senior Government sources quoted in the press today, there are indeed fears that we have been winning the argument and gaining too much ground. Our polling this week found that 62% of voters support traditional marriage. In terms of the party breakdown: 68% of Tory voters oppose redefining marriage, as do 58% of Labour voters and 52% of Liberal Democrat voters.
Our ComRes poll found that for every one disaffected Conservative voter gained back, the Party lost eight votes. In April the ratio was one to three. So the haemorrhage is deepening. The Tories have lost around 1.35 million votes. That will easily translate into the loss of over 30 seats. Downing Street’s panicked reaction shows that we, and you, have been doing precisely the right things in opposition to this unpopular and unnecessary plan.
It was always arrogant for the Government to think it could rewrite the meaning of marriage. It would be even worse for them to do it in a rush, knowing – as they surely must – that the plans bring monumental legal difficulties, not least for the civil liberties of those who disagree. In today’s Times, gay journalist Matthew Parris says that opponents of redefining marriage “have some dangerously cogent arguments at their disposal”. It would be completely reckless for the Government to plough on ahead and ignore the fact that people like Adrian Smith have been punished for their beliefs on traditional marriage. If that is the case now, how much more so if gay marriage is legalised?
So, with the Government panicking, now is the time to redouble our efforts and keep the pressure on. We are not going away.
When the time comes please respond to our action alerts to contact your MP. Even if you have done it many times before, please do so again. We know it is having a great impact at Westminster.
Please make a generous contribution to support the campaign. We have a fight on our hands, but if you give us the resources we believe we can win the argument.
Please give £50, £100, £200 or whatever you can afford.
DONATE safely, privately.
Yours sincerely
Colin Hart
Campaign Director
Coalition for Marriage
Dear Marriage supporter
According to this morning’s newspapers, panicking Downing Street spin doctors have suggested David Cameron would rush through plans to redefine marriage, with talk of MPs getting their first opportunity to vote in the New Year. But since then, other Government spokespeople have hurriedly denied the legislation will be fast-tracked.
We will wait and see. We always knew such claims could be made, because we knew that our campaign was hitting home very effectively. We knew we were making headway and that the Government could panic like this.
According to senior Government sources quoted in the press today, there are indeed fears that we have been winning the argument and gaining too much ground. Our polling this week found that 62% of voters support traditional marriage. In terms of the party breakdown: 68% of Tory voters oppose redefining marriage, as do 58% of Labour voters and 52% of Liberal Democrat voters.
Our ComRes poll found that for every one disaffected Conservative voter gained back, the Party lost eight votes. In April the ratio was one to three. So the haemorrhage is deepening. The Tories have lost around 1.35 million votes. That will easily translate into the loss of over 30 seats. Downing Street’s panicked reaction shows that we, and you, have been doing precisely the right things in opposition to this unpopular and unnecessary plan.
It was always arrogant for the Government to think it could rewrite the meaning of marriage. It would be even worse for them to do it in a rush, knowing – as they surely must – that the plans bring monumental legal difficulties, not least for the civil liberties of those who disagree. In today’s Times, gay journalist Matthew Parris says that opponents of redefining marriage “have some dangerously cogent arguments at their disposal”. It would be completely reckless for the Government to plough on ahead and ignore the fact that people like Adrian Smith have been punished for their beliefs on traditional marriage. If that is the case now, how much more so if gay marriage is legalised?
So, with the Government panicking, now is the time to redouble our efforts and keep the pressure on. We are not going away.
When the time comes please respond to our action alerts to contact your MP. Even if you have done it many times before, please do so again. We know it is having a great impact at Westminster.
Please make a generous contribution to support the campaign. We have a fight on our hands, but if you give us the resources we believe we can win the argument.
Please give £50, £100, £200 or whatever you can afford.
DONATE safely, privately.
Yours sincerely
Colin Hart
Campaign Director
Coalition for Marriage
Tuesday, 13 November 2012
Monday, 12 November 2012
Sunday, 11 November 2012
Ulysses
It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: all times I have enjoy'd
Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honour'd of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life. Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge, like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle--
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.
There lies the port: the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd and wrought, and thought with me--
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads--you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all; but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Lord Tennyson 1809-1892
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: all times I have enjoy'd
Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honour'd of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life. Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge, like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle--
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.
There lies the port: the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd and wrought, and thought with me--
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads--you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all; but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Lord Tennyson 1809-1892
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