The Angry Exile: Blogosphere power at work?

The Hangman

Into our town the Hangman came,
Smelling of gold and blood and flame.
And he paced our bricks with a diffident air,
And built his frame in the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
Only as wide as the door was wide;
A frame as tall, or little more,
Than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered, whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal, what the crime
That the Hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were, with dread,
We passed those eyes of buckshot lead --
Till one cried: "Hangman, who is he
For whom you raised the gallows-tree?"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
And he gave us a riddle instead of reply:
"He who serves me best," said he,
"Shall earn the rope of the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down, and laid his hand
On a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for another's grief
At the Hangman's hand was our relief
And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn
By tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way, and no one spoke,
Out of respect for his Hangman's cloak.
The next day's sun looked mildly down
On roof and street in our quiet town,
And stark and black in the morning air
Was the gallows-tree in the courthouse square.
And the Hangman stood at his usual stand
With the yellow hemp in his busy hand;
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike
And his air so knowing and business-like.
And we cried, "Hangman, have you not done
Yesterday, with the foreign one?"
Then we fell silent, and stood amazed,
"Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us:
"Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss
To hang one man? That's a thing I do
To stretch a rope when the rope is new."
Then one cried "Murder!" and one cried "Shame!"
And into our midst the Hangman came
To that man's place. "Do you hold," said he,
"with him that was meant for the gallows-tree?"
And he laid his hand on that one's arm.
And we shrank back in quick alarm!
And we gave him way, and no one spoke
Out of fear of his Hangman's cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise
The Hangman's scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute,
The gallows-tree had taken root;
Now as wide, or a little more,
Than the steps that led to the courthouse door,
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
Halfway up on the courthouse wall.
The third he took -- we had all heard tell --
Was a usurer, and an infidel.
"What," said the Hangman "have you to do
With the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"
And we cried out, "Is this one he
Who has served you well and faithfully?"
The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme
to try the strength of the gallows-beam."
The fourth man's dark, accusing song
Had scratched our comfort hard and long;
"And what concern," he gave us back.
"Have you for the doomed -- the doomed and Black?"
The fifth. The sixth. And we cried again,
"Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?"
"It's a trick," he said. "that we hangmen know
For easing the trap when the trap springs slow."
And so we ceased, and asked no more,
As the Hangman tallied his bloody score.
And sun by sun, and night by night,
The gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide
Till they covered the square from side to side;
And the monster cross-beam, looking down,
Cast its shadow across the town.
Then through the town the Hangman came,
Through the empty streets, and called my name --
And I looked at the gallows soaring tall,
And thought, "There is no one left at all
For hanging, and so he calls to me
To help pull down the gallows-tree."
So I went out with right good hope
To the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.
He smiled at me as I came down
To the courthouse square through the silent town.
And supple and stretched in his busy hand
Was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.
And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap,
And it sprang down with a ready snap --
And then with a smile of awful command
He laid his hand upon my hand.
"You tricked me. Hangman!," I shouted then,
"That your scaffold was built for other men...
And I no henchman of yours," I cried,
"You lied to me, Hangman. Foully lied!"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
"Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said. "Not I.
For I answered straight and I told you true --
The scaffold was raised for none but you.
For who has served me more faithfully
Then you with your coward's hope?" said he,
"And where are the others who might have stood
Side by your side in the common good?"
"Dead," I whispered. And amiably
"Murdered," the Hangman corrected me:
"First the foreigner, then the Jew...
I did no more than you let me do."
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky
None had stood so alone as I.
The Hangman noosed me, and no voice there
Cried "Stop!" for me in the empty square.

Maurice Ogden

Saturday, 1 May 2010

Blogosphere power at work?

This morning I noticed that this year old story in The Australian on the 'soft totalitarianism' of modern Britain, which has had a permanent link on my sidebar for ages, is suddenly the 8th most read article. How come, wonders I. Could it be that the news of Gordon Brown's 'bigot' gaff and the talk of the TV debates has generated a renewed interest in what's going on in the old country among British expats and Aussies of British descent? That was certainly my first thought, but then I over at Leg-iron's blog I noticed that his blogging on the Australian federal government's plan to de-brand tobacco packaging had attracted this comment.

It's a shame there aren't more writers like this bloke in both countries: Thought police muscle up in Britain

Since it made the most read list during the night while most here would have been asleep I'm now wondering if Leg-iron, his smoky drinky blog and readership, and an anonymous commenter gave it a boost, especially as two hours later it's no longer on the list. I'll never know but I hope so, because I still feel that it's an article everyone in Britain should read before they put an X on a bit of paper this coming Thursday. There might well be nobody on most people's ballot papers who wants to do something about it but that's not going to change unless many moree become aware of the creeping influence of the real life Thought Police and are prepared to shout:

"Enough!"

2 comments:

Rob F said...: I've been reading your blog daily for the last six months or so (or maybe longer!), but Leggy, Obo and co for a couple of years now.

As a result they come before you in my bookmarks list, so I'm one of those people who read that article after clicking on the link in the comments; I could have read it a lot sooner though, if I'd been paying more attention!

D'OH! Probably too many non-governmental approved excess alcohol units, or something.

I'd love to start an Ebay shop selling customised ciggy packs; they could display the name 'Fuck You' or 'I Smoke - So What?' and carry a warning about the loss of our liberties and the dangers of politicians, rather than the usual ones about smokers being sterile, impotent, yellow-fingered Poisoners of The Cheeeldrenn.

Do you think that they'd catch on? I could do with a lot of Pounds Sterling so that I can get out of this dump, although I'd probably be converting them to gold and silver soon afterwards...; 1 May 2010 at 22:51
Angry Exile said...: No worries, Rob. Perhaps I should move it up the sidebar. It used to be further up but as it sits below the blogroll, which has expanded quite a bit since I first put that link up, it's gradually moved further and further down.

Interesting idea about the fag packets. Might catch on but as I said I always bought cigarettes that I liked to smoke rather than because the pack was a certain colour. Case in point, I used to smoke Silk Cut - yes, I know there will be people who say that's not actually smoking :-) - but they don't do Silk Cut in Oz. So before I ran out of what I'd brought with me I tried various brands of low tar cigs either by buying likely looking ones or poncing off of other smokers. Before long I'd settled on a lightweight version of Benson & Hedges that wasn't too far off and stuck with that till I quit. If I was still smoking or in the unlikely event that I start again I'll go back to what I know. It's the contents that are the important bit.; 2 May 2010 at 01:04