Wine, Water and Song

<h2><SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_53" title="53"> </SPAN>The Road to Roundabout</h2> <div class="poetry width20"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="line"><span class="upper-case">Some</span> say that Guy of Warwick,<br/></div> <div class="line">The man that killed the Cow<br/></div> <div class="line">And brake the mighty Boar alive<br/></div> <div class="line">Beyond the Bridge at Slough;<br/></div> <div class="line">Went up against a Loathly Worm<br/></div> <div class="line">That wasted all the Downs,<br/></div> <div class="line">And so the roads they twist and squirm<br/></div> <div class="line">(If I may be allowed the term)<br/></div> <SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_54" title="54"> </SPAN><div class="line">From the writhing of the stricken Worm<br/></div> <div class="line">That died in seven towns.<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">I see no scientific proof<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">That this idea is sound,<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">And I should say they wound about<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">To find the town of Roundabout,<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">The merry town of Roundabout,<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">That makes the world go round.<br/></div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="line">Some say that Robin Goodfellow,<br/></div> <div class="line">Whose lantern lights the meads<br/></div> <div class="line">(To steal a phrase Sir Walter Scott<br/></div> <div class="line">In heaven no longer needs),<br/></div> <div class="line">Such dance around the trysting-place<br/></div> <div class="line">The moonstruck lover leads;<br/></div> <SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_55" title="55"> </SPAN><div class="line">Which superstition I should scout<br/></div> <div class="line">There is more faith in honest doubt<br/></div> <div class="line">(As Tennyson has pointed out)<br/></div> <div class="line">Than in those nasty creeds.<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">But peace and righteousness (St. John)<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">In Roundabout can kiss,<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">And since that's all that's found about<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">The pleasant town of Roundabout,<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">The roads they simply bound about<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">To find out where it is.<br/></div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="line">Some say that when Sir Lancelot<br/></div> <div class="line">Went forth to find the Grail,<br/></div> <div class="line">Grey Merlin wrinkled up the roads<br/></div> <div class="line">For hope that he should fail;<br/></div> <SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_56" title="56"> </SPAN><div class="line">All roads led back to Lyonesse<br/></div> <div class="line">And Camelot in the Vale,<br/></div> <div class="line">I cannot yield assent to this<br/></div> <div class="line">Extravagant hypothesis,<br/></div> <div class="line">The plain, shrewd Briton will dismiss<br/></div> <div class="line">Such rumours (<b><i>Daily Mail</i></b>).<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">But in the streets of Roundabout<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">Are no such factions found,<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">Or theories to expound about,<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">Or roll upon the ground about,<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">In the happy town of Roundabout,<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">That makes the world go round.<br/></div> </div></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />