Aground on the Shallows
From past felicities of mind and tongue,
a great fothering, tarry cloth in hole,
to bribe a sinking frigate with a bung,
to win a little prize - but pay the toll.
Poised on the jagged edges of bared words,
or falling through those gaps that speak volumes,
indelible minstrelsies, quick as birds
flit far... as bulking hostility looms.
The boom of current conflicts dulls the tongue,
and all the polish of the rhyme and rann
unmastered yet. Oh, wish the satire strung,
but brute campaign sails out from shallow plan:
swinging the lead to test the depth of sea,
I run aground on broad sandbanks of me.
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To 'fother' a breach below waterline in a ship, is to plug a tarry cloth in it.
Captured enemy ships were called prizes, and earned the few crew, put onboard to bring them in, rewards.
A 'rann', in this context, is a stanza in ancient Irish verse, often used for satire.
Swinging the lead is to use a plumb-line with a lead weight on the end to test the depth of water from a ship when near land.
A very nautical and rather Donne-like sonnet ;)
Yes I read all of CS Forester's 'Hornblower' series.
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A Rapper Can't Rap at a King
How shall I insult Spanish Monarchy?
if I should rap it out I'd go to jail,
though remnants of old Fascism should fail,
anachronisms scrubbed and speech be free.
These laws are rightist bands of Tyranny;
while plain seigheiling Neo-Nazis rail,
and Vox rants against Islam on the trail,
left wing rappers are not to be left free.
The scales of justice need re-balancing
while Spain gasps in its corset, unity,
and fair doos in protest-moderating
and curbing danger of extremity;
and certainly the rap, the rap's the thing
to prove the irrelevance of the king.
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So. It is not only in Thailand or Saudi that people get jailed for insulting monarchy.
"Pablo Hasél, was given a two-year jail sentence and a fine of almost €30,000 (£26,000) after Spain's highest criminal court ruled that his lyrics and comments went beyond the limits of free speech... Hasél had referred to the former Spanish King Juan Carlos as a "drunken tyrant" and a "mafia capo", praised Eta and other terrorist groups, called the national police "murderers" and accused the Guardia Civil of torturing and murdering migrants.
The sentence was reduced on appeal to nine months, and Hasél was ordered to report to prison at the end of January. But on Monday, the rapper sought refuge in the University of Lleida, saying he wanted "to make things as difficult as possible for the police" and to highlight "a hugely serious attack" on freedom.
Officers from Catalonia's police force entered the building on Tuesday and arrested the rapper after clearing barricades set up by around 50 of his supporters..." The Guardian.
Vox is an extreme right wing Spanish party.
The whole article can be read in the link I posted in Comments.
