I’ve been watching a few people get very heated up about some topics, feeling that they’re being bullied — that is, other people are expressing their disagreement, which for a certain class of privileged individual is the closest they come to being bullied — and wondering why it is that their supposedly reasonable, compassionate audience aren’t jumping to their defence.  I decided I should write them a song.

So there was the eternal question of what tune to use.  There are still some Taylor Swift songs left unfilked, but I thought I might aspire to a slightly higher standard.  The Beloved pointed me to Greg Lindahl’s page, and from there I found Vladislav the Purple’s Medieval Melodies for Filking.  After reviewing the options, I felt that Edi beo thu hevene queene (midi file) was a good fit.  And if we’re going to be medieval in the tune, why not try to make the grammar as Elizabethan as possible?  Can’t do much about the vocabulary, sadly.

March 2016

Friend, thou wallowest in all of thy woes,
As ev’ry man snipeth and biteth thy toes.
Strive as thou ever dost to speak thy piece,
Opponents endeavour to scoff without cease.
Why, thou wond’rest, must each passer-by
Their maledictions propel at thine eye?
Forsooth, is’t malice and dark disdain
Compelling these creatures to cause thee such pain?

Lo, the tale is so frequently told:
In idle discussion thou findest foothold.
Some chance remark is there a spark to thy flame,
And e’er thou conceive it, thou joinest the game.
Prized opinions, so practiced by heart,
Thou now presentest with science and art.
Why doth none other take up thy song?
‘Tis plain yet unfortunate: friend, thou art wrong.