[1165] The Ballad Of William Bloat

Interesting theme proposed by Frank O'Shea <foshea@> - in Frank's
words:

How about a series on poems featured in movies.

You already have "Code Poem for the French Resistance" [Poem #197]from the
film "Carve Her Name With Pride". And "O Captain, My Captain!"[Poem #157]
from "Dead Poets Society". And I seem to recall a film in which
"Invictus"[Poem #221] was central - a teacher trying to get a student to
tease out the meaning; what was the film?

Here is another one, the first verse of which is read aloud from the old book
of verse in the cave in one of the meetings of the Dead Poets Society. Whenever
I recite it, I have to warn listeners not to make up their politically correct
and sensitive minds until I have finished.

In a mean abode on the Shankill Road
Lived a man named William Bloat;
And he had a wife, the curse of his life,
Who always got his goat.
'Til one day at dawn, with her nightdress on
He slit her pretty throat.

With a razor gash he settled her hash
Oh never was crime so quick
But the steady drip on the pillowslip
Of her lifeblood made him sick.
And the pool of gore on the bedroom floor
Grew clotted and cold and thick.

Now he was right glad he had done as he had
As his wife lay there so still
But a sudden awe of the mighty law
Filled his heart with an icy chill.
So to finish the fun so well begun
He resolved himself to kill.

He took the sheet from his wife's cold feet
And twisted it into a rope
And he hanged himself from the pantry shelf,
'Twas an easy end, let's hope.
In the face of death with his latest breath
He said "to hell with the Pope."

Now the strangest turn in this whole concern
Is only just beginning.
He went to Hell, but his wife got well
And is still alive and sinning.
For the razor blade was Dublin made
But the sheet was Belfast linen.

 	-- Raymond Calvert

The poem is variously attributed to that prolific creator of such verses,
Anon.  But I have also seen the name Raymond Calvert as author. I would be
happy to know something about him. [I found several attributions to Calvert,
so I've gone ahead and followed suit - martin]

The Shankill Road is the centre of militant Protestantism (more accurately,
anti-papistry) in Belfast and is rarely out of the news when it comes to
"loyalist" paramilitary activity.

I have also seen the last two lines written as

   For the razor blade was German made
   But the sheet was English linen.

Presumably a leftover from one of the World Wars and possibly when it first
appeared.

Frank O'Shea

[Martin adds]
Curiously enough, apart from "Funeral Blues"[Poem #256], I can't think of
any memorable poetry featured in a movie (Jackson's first "Lord of the
Rings" movie disappointed me in that respect - I expected at least one poem
as a voiceover.) Maybe I just don't watch enough of the right sort of movie.
I'm looking forward to seeing what people come up with.

(Afterthought: no, I lied - there was the very memorable, and heartily
recommended, "Il Postino")

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From: "Sitaram. P" <p.sitaram@>

`Back to School' has the poem `Do not go gentle into that dark night'.

Sitaram

From: "Ian Baillieu" <ianbaill@>

If so, they misquoted it.  It's 'good night', not 'dark
night'.

From: "Tim Forbes" <tim@>

In the film "Out of Africa"  Meryl Streep's character reads AE Houseman's
poem, "The day you won your town the race" over the grave of the Robert
Redford character.

Tim

From: Alan Kornheiser <akornhis@>

Dear Martin,

I believe my daily dose of poetry...some serious, some not; some admirable,
some less so; all poetry...delivered here in the context of no
context...next to my spam and my business mail and my checking up on Dilbert
and Salon...is changing me in interesting ways. It is one thing to sit down
as on an evening in the chair with the light set just so to read this or
that. It is another to be constantly ambushed by poetry. One starts finding
it everywhere.

In today's New York Times, there is another review of WG Sebald's
meditations on the Allied bombings of German cities. It sits adjacent to a
discussion of the increased amount of trivial sex on network TV. The
overcivilized Germans becoming "the rat people" shares space with Joe
Millionaire. What do these things have in common? They are ink on paper and
paper is grass and all flesh is grass and in the midst of daily coffee we
are somewhere else. I think you bear some responsibility for this.

And by the way...you can probably do much better with quoted poetry in
theatre than in movies. However, bear in mind Kornheiser's first law of
dramatics: "Never quote Shaw or Shakespeare in your stageplay unless you can
write as well as Shaw or Shakespeare. Since you can't, don't." You'd be
amazed the number of playwrights who have not learned this.

Alan
_________________________________
Alan S Kornheiser, PhD

sophisticated market research
10 Hilltop Drive
North Salem, NY  10560
914/669-6705

From: Vidur <vidur_b@>

ee cumming's 'somewhere i have never traveled' from 'hannah and her
sisters' comes to mind - one of the finest love poems ever written (in
my opinion, anyway).

and more recently, a snatch from rilke's 'fear of the inexplicable'
from the delightful 'kissing jessica stein'.

:v:

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From: Frank O'Shea <foshea@>

There is also Dutch Lullaby (Wynken, Blynken and Nod) by Eugene Field (no 
967 in your list) which is featured in the 1990 film Denis the Menace

Frank

From: TaxWatch@

Re:  The Ballad of William Bloat --

" Raymond Colville Calvert, the only son and second child of William
Henderson Calvert (1865-1952) and Barbara (nee Williamson) (1865-1938).
Raymond was born at Banchory House, Helen's Bay, County Down, on Oct.30, 1906
and was educated at Bangor Grammar School and Queen's University, Belfast,
where he took his degree in English in 1927 at the age of 20. He was a
leading member of the University Dramatic Society, and it was for a cast
party in 1926 that he composed ``The Ballad of William Bloat'', which has so
firmly become part of Irish folklore that some well-known literary critics
have erroneously believed it to be a traditional ballad. It was first
published in a collection called Brave Crack in 1950 and more recently in an
illustrated edition by the Blackstaff Press; as a song it has been recorded
in the United States by the Clancy Brothers."

EARLS FAMILY CHRONICLES  =A9 Christopher Earls Brennen
[http://www.dankat.com/earls/chap11.htm]

From: "George Van O'Brien" <georgeva@>

In a film biography of FDR the poem Invictus was read.

GVO

From: "Gay Firth" <gay.firth@>

Raymond Calvert, a lifelong friend and colleague of my father's in
Northern Ireland, wrote The Ballad of William Bloat in 1926, while a
student at Queen's University in Belfast. The text given here is nearly
correct - but not quite. The last two lines should read:  "For the razor
blade was foreign made,/But the sheet was Irish linen."

Mrs Gay Firth, London, UK
gay.firth@

From: afannan@  Mon Jun 30 17:58:55 2003

A favorite of mine is Robert Frost's "Nothing Gold Can Stay" read in the
movie (though the book is better) The Outsiders.

From: "G. S. Ramasubramanian" <ramsu@>

While on the subject of poems in the movies.

* A poem by W. H. Auden (I think it is One evening) features in Richard
Linklater's Before Sunrise. I think Ethan Hawke recites it to Julie
Delpy. I remember the lines And Time will have its fancy/Tomorrow or
today - could someone post the whole poem here?

Regards
Ramsu

From: PhilipMateer@

Should be "who continually got his goat"
In the face of death with his latest breath he solemnly cursed the  Pope

and ending "the razor blade was foreign made
but the sheet was Irish linen!

It can never have been English linen - irish linen was the whole point of  
the story - the pride Unster had in the perfection of its product -against the  
foreign steel of the razor blade!!!