How Many Miles To Babylon. Poem by Margery Rehman
How Many Miles To Babylon.
(The real nursery rhyme goes;
How many miles to Babylon?
Three score and ten.
Can I get there by candlelight?
Yes. There and back again.)
How many miles to Babylon?
The way is long and harsh, my son,
The road is winding, the going rough,
For many there is no return.
How many miles to Babylon?
As many as they let you go,
It is an ancient, alien land
What you'll meet there, who can know.
How many miles to Babylon?
Too many miles in a distant land
Where bombs and havoc rule the day
And bloodied limbs lie in the sand.
How many miles to Babylon?
The dead in heaps await their biers.
Against a tapestry of fire,
The rivers run with red- blood tears.
How many miles to Babylon?
Six by seven by three,
Only in your winding sheet
Will you come home to me.
A NURSERY RHYME WRITTEN WITH A POLITICAL VIEW...! ! ! NICE... :)
I love your poems, Ms Rehman. This one is very moving. And what style! I take the same pleasure in what you write as when our English teacher, in my French school, sowed the seeds of beauty to be found in Classics and shared it with us..
So many nursery rhymes I believe were written with strong political voices that have long since been forgotten. Your new rendition of the old rhyme is magnificent. You use your lyrical poetic pen to make a strong political statement - and works! Brilliant! love, Allie xxxxxxx
Margery, It takes a special talent to grow a nursery rhyme into a powerfully voiced contemporary commentary - and you seem to have done it with ease! ''...How many miles to Babylon? Six by seven by three, Only in your winding sheet Will you come home to me...'' Yet you've preserved the original simplicity and essential lyrical quality. Magnificent! Rgds, Ivan
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/19/2024 7:13:47 PM # 1.0.0.1119
Margery, this is excellent. Bang! Straight to the point and to the guts. M