The Sick Rose
By William Blake
O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
A poem for a reading in the Rutherglen Labour Party meetings?
Labour loses nearly 100,000 members and makes £5 million loss in 2021: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-membership-loss-accounts-deficit-b2146691.html
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
William Blake, genius. Did you know he was almost locked up for sedition? He and Catherine his wife decided to rent a wee cottage I think on the south coast, to get out of London.
One day a soldier came by and walked into Blake’s garden at which point he became angry and threw him out giving him no doubt a few sharp words. Anyway he was taken to court, but the judge let him off obviously realising Blake was no threat to anyone, quite the opposite.
He died in poverty like all artists, except a very few. A friend of mine who collected wood engraving prints had a huge collection now at Yale, (including some of mine if I can brag a little) anyway he used to say the best career move for an artist is when they die!
Have a great weekend all, I’m too knackered to make the march and rally. 😔
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Blake also had episodes of severe mental illness during which he had visions. One, on Peckham Rye was particularly lurid and frightening. I remember this only because when I read about it I was on a bench on Peckham Rye.
And, no, I saw no vision, just weans on swings, dog walkers, people throwing frisbees.
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He did have visions, hence his wonderful artworks, sometimes scary and dark. He was a real humanist, he cared too much. I guess in those days any mental illness was not diagnosed, he may have had a benign brain tumour or anything else neurologically damaging. A friend of mine her father in Germany had a benign brain tomour, it manifested as mental illness. My mother and her dear sister both succumbed to brain tumours, though incurable. In the 1980/90s, they were both treated as being anxious and in my mother’s case when I by chance saw her med notes, as suffering from ‘nervous hysteria’. Late 1980s, not 1880s.
I am sure Blake was not too keen on the military, like other creatives, Wordsworth eg, he was in favour of the French Revolution.
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Did you know he was almost locked up for sedition?
Yes watched one of several docs on him.
Knackered, me too but daughter went.
Decoding Turner on Sky Arts Wednesday I think, looks good too.
John
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Brilliant, John.
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Too kind Iain.
John
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This article is from 2009. It is about crumbling schools.
As you can see from these two paragraphs, even then the (minority) SNP Scottish Government made the right call –
https://www.scotsman.com/news/scandal-of-scotlands-crumbling-schools-2472468
“Major councils and teaching unions laid the blame for the crisis at the door of the Nationalist government, claiming its dogmatic refusal to accept private finance was consigning a generation of Scots children to miserable schooldays and sub-standard education.”
“A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The Scottish Futures Trust is already supporting infrastructure investment and will be used in the commissioning of a new school project in the spring. Local authorities are also able to build schools through traditional funding methods. In 2008, more than 30,000 pupils have swapped sub-standard classrooms for modern ones and over the lifetime of this parliament we will see that total rise to at least 100,000.””
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Great
Thanks
John
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SNP more members than Labour (pro rata) and less debt.
An irrelevant by election. Low turnout? A total waste of time and money caused by Westminster unionist.
GE barely a year away. The communications going out.
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Medical science has advanced. Brain tumours can be cut out. Less people die, People can get better treatment for mental illness. More available therapies.
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The Labour RED Rose is now a thorn in it’s, Labour’s, side…replaced really by a flag , a specific one only.
In 2022 the Labour party conference sang the National (English) anthem at the start and ended with what is considered (and is) a song that is identified and used , at times, as an alternate English anthem…as in Jerusalem (William Blake)….but they also , hysterically, sang The Red Flag ! (hysterical because they are really more BLUE than RED now)…..and how does Jerusalem signify a party that presents itself as a UK party and that as a UK party asks us Scots to embrace and support BRITISH patriotism….they really are so full of conflicting mixed messages….that all expose that their English nationalism takes precedence over everything in their , not so great, Britain/UK…..
The CLEAR disadvantage for Starmer and his BRITISH patriotism is that he is often seen to FAIL to be NEUTRAL as a UK/British politician when tis anything ENGLISH related…..his support, exuberance (contrived or not), allegiance and favouritism via sporting events and via politics for England betrays the fake British persona that he presents to the public… hence why I, and others, cannot support his party EVER……he tries to have it BOTH ways as in he alternates between Englishness and Britishness but in his heart he is ENGLISH and that , within a UK state, does NOT bode well for Scotland to thrive and to be at the forefront of his future economic plans for his UK……
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