[Bards] The Old Green Dragon*

[Jay Rudin]

It is *so* good to read another poem of joy from Cadfan.  I am reminded once 
again that I have *never* regretted naming that young man the bard of 
Gilwell some twenty-seven years ago.

Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Schorn" <peterschorn at pdq.net>
To: <bards at lists.ansteorra.org>
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2007 8:59 PM
Subject: [Bards] The Old Green Dragon*


>
> When I first came to the Shire
>  In the springtime of my year,
> I saw the old Green Dragon
>  Aglow with warmth and cheer.
> Where the Nine Companions waited
>  And the old Ringbearer too,
> At the merry old Green Dragon
>     The hearty old Green Dragon
>     The hopeful old Green Dragon
> When all the world was new.
>
> When I went down to Fleet Street
>  In the summer of my year,
> There stood the old Green Dragon
>  Where the rake-hells took their beer.
> Where the Herald and the Tatler drank-
>  (And His Lordship paid the score!)
> At the cunning old Green Dragon
>     The smoky old Green Dragon
>     The fiery old Green Dragon
> That made a mighty roar!
>
> When I went to Gleann Abhann
>  In the autumn of my year,
> There in the old Green Dragon
>  Once more they did appear:
> The Bards and the Adventurers
>  The Heroes in disguise,
> At the dreaming old Green Dragon
>     The storied old Green Dragon
>     The resounding old Green Dragon
> Before my tear-filled eyes.
>
> When I go by the Low Road
>  In the winter of my year
> I'll seek the old Green Dragon
>  And the faces that were dear.
> For when I hear their laughter
>  And see their eyes alight
> At the kindly old Green Dragon
>     The welcoming Green Dragon
>     The decent old Green Dragon
> I'll know my path was right.
>
>
> *Everyone here knows the Green Dragon Tavern of Tolkien's Middle Earth. 
> But
> there is another: in Fleet Street, where all the British tabloids (like 
> the
> Tatler and the Herald) were and are published.  It's a newspaperman's bar,
> where all the muckrakers gather to drink and smoke and plot to afflict the
> comfortable.  G. K. Chesterton wrote a poem about it, and that inspired me
> to write this poem about the Green Dragon tavern at the Gulf Wars site.
>
> This poem is of course not period, however poems like it very nearly are.
> In the 1600's it was not uncommon for publicans and tavern-keepers to
> commission street ballads advertising their establishments (c.f. "The Man 
> in
> the Moon Drinks Claret," about the Man in the Moon tavern, a song which
> first appeared in a collection entitled-hm-The Bagford Ballads.)
>
> --Cadfan ap Morgan Godrudd, March, AS XXXXI
>
>
>
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