A number of poems (both published and author generated), including children’s nursery rhymes, feature in Need, Greed & Ignorance.
Sam, the main character reverts to poetry on several occasions. Sometimes the poems are quoted by the mutterings in his brain – a flashback to a particular episode in his life (dark origins) – and sometimes they are just remembered childhood nursery rhymes indicating that perhaps he has not matured into the adult stage as yet.
As a child Sam would have read these rhymes in library books or heard them chanted at school; he wouldn’t have had the experience of hearing them at bedtime as many children do. Perhaps this is why they feature in his mind so often – a lament to what might have been?
Many traditional nursery rhymes have hidden, sinister backstories which are far from child-friendly. Dating from as early on as the Viking period in England, some are records of political and religious upheaval; others explore aspects of daily life, scandals and gossip.
“There was a Crooked Man” originates from the English Stuart history of King Charles I. The “crooked man” is said to allude to Scottish General Sir Alexander Leslie, who signed a treaty that secured Scotland’s freedom. “The crooked stile” represents the border wedged between England and Scotland. The English and Scots agreement is represented within the line “They all lived together in a crooked little house.” The rhyme refers to the uneasy peace between the two countries.
The voices in Sam’s head taunt him with this rhyme when he first finds out that he is to be a father. The reference to the crooked man is a reference to Sam himself – yet another insult from the damned voices.
Another poem that is uttered by his other self when he is pending fatherhood is Hush a Bye Baby – a popular lullabye. As with all nursery rhymes there is a sinister theme – in this case a dead infant. This particular poem is sometimes read as rock-a -bye baby:
Hush-a-by baby on the tree top,
When the wind blows the cradle will rock.
When the bow breaks, the cradle will fall,
And down will come baby, cradle and all.
The leading theory is it hails from early U.S. settlers who reported how Native Americans often rocked their babies in cradles suspended from tree branches, allowing the wind to gently sway them to sleep (or a gust to hurl them into oblivion). A competing take is that it’s actually about birth, with the tree as the mother, the wind as her contractions, the bough as her water breaking, and the “cradle and all” as the placenta.
Either way, it is a poem about life instead of death.
In Chapter 13, Cut some slack, Sam is waiting to go and see an old lady (who he later refers to as Mrs H) to see if she will give him any cash-in-hand work as he is desperate for money. While he waits to see her that first morning, an Irish blessing comes into Sam’s mind after he recalls Eileen saying it to him whilst he is recuperating in the care hospice.
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
This traditional Irish blessing is an ancient Celtic prayer. Celtic literature is famed for using images of nature and everyday life to speak of how God interacts with with His people. May the road rise up to meet you is about God’s blessing for your journey – may your walk be an easy one – with no huge mountains to climb or obstacles to overcome.
It alludes to three images from nature – the wind, sun and rain – as pictures of God’s care and provision. The “wind” can be likened to the Spirit of God, who came as a “mighty wind” at Pentecost. The suns warmth in the prayer reminds us of the tender mercies of God, “by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven” (Luke 1:78, NIV), whilst the soft falling rain speaks of God’s provision and sustenance. Finally, we are reminded that we are held safe in God’s loving hands as we travel on our journey through life.
Read more: http://www.lords-prayer-words.com/famous_prayers/may_the_road_rise_up_to_meet_you.html#ixzz38hKR6vnW
The next poem comes into Sam’s head when he hears that a number of children have gone missing in his location. He and he alone makes the link between their birth date and the date of their abduction.
Monday’s child is fair of face,
Tuesday’s child is full of grace,
Wednesday’s child is full of woe,
Thursday’s child has far to go,
Friday’s child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for his living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.
This rhyme was first recorded in A. E. Bray’s Traditions of Devonshire (Volume II, pp. 287–288) in 1838 and was collected by James Orchard Halliwell in the mid-nineteenth century.The tradition of fortune telling by days of birth is much older. Thomas Nashe recalled stories told to “yong folks” in Suffolk in the 1570s which included “tell[ing] what luck eurie one should have by the day of the weeke he was borne on”. Nashe thus provides evidence for fortune telling rhymes of this type circulating in Suffolk in the 1570s.
There was considerable variation and debate about the exact attributes of each day and even over the days. Halliwell had ‘Christmas Day’ instead of the Sabbath. Despite modern versions in which “Wednesday’s child is full of woe,” an early incarnation of this rhyme appeared in a multi-part fictional story in a chapter appearing in Harper’s Weekly on September 17, 1887, in which “Friday’s child is full of woe”, perhaps reflecting traditional superstitions associated with bad luck on Friday – as many Christians associated Friday with the Crucifixion. In addition to Wednesday’s and Friday’s children’s role reversal, the fates of Thursday’s and Saturday’s children was also exchanged and Sunday’s child is “happy and wise” instead of “blithe and good”
Interestingly, Sam was born on a Monday which ties in with his so-called inherited good looks!
The next poem is actually a verse taken from the Bible. It is Sam’s biological father’s favourite It is quoted from 1 Corinthian 13: 4-8 and taken from a letter from St Paul (the excerpt given below verse). Sam is fascinated by religion – especially after meeting Eileen, a devout roman catholic during his recuperation at a Hospice. He also steals a Bible from a chapel shortly after his return to the streets and regularly reads random scriptures looking for answers.
He has never known love, not real love until the birth of his son, Matthew.
” I did not know how to love. I only loved because it met a need in me!”
Sam hoped to hang this particular sentiment in Matthew’s bedroom wall; heartbreakingly Matthew never gets to read it:
Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast,
it is not arrogant or proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts,
always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.
So now faith, hope and love abide, but the greatest of these is love.
“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing”.
The final poem is famous – The Fallen by Laurence Binyon.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
This is essentially a poem about loss and Sam cannot cope with loss – whether it is caused by death, rejection or merely by people leaving him. He comes across this poem on a scrap of paper whilst searching through his late parents’ effects. We can surmise that this was kept by his father to lament the loss of one or both of his own parents during the second World War.
Laurence Binyon composed this best known poem while sitting on the cliff-top looking out to sea from the dramatic scenery of the north Cornish coastline (Polzeath).
The poem was written in mid September 1914, a few weeks after the outbreak of the First World War. During these weeks the British Expeditionary Force had suffered casualties following its first encounter with the Imperial German Army at the Battle of Mons on 23rd August, its rearguard action during the retreat from Mons in late August and the Battle of Le Chateau on 26th August, and its participation with the French Army in holding up the Imperial German Army at the First Battle of the Marne between 5th and 9th September 1914.
Laurence said in 1939 that the four lines of the fourth stanza came to him first. These words of the fourth stanza have become especially familiar and famous, having been adopted by the Royal British Legion as an Exhortation for ceremonies of Remembrance to commemorate fallen Servicemen and women.
Laurence Binyon was too old to enlist in the military forces but he went to work for the Red Cross as a medical orderly in 1916. He lost several close friends and his brother-in-law in the war.
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Need, Greed and Ignorance 