Most correspondents came from the former colonial powers - there were British, French, and a lot of Italians, because there were a lot of Italian communities there. And of course there were a lot of Russians.
quote by Ryszard Kapuscinski
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Battle of Inkermann
'Twas in the year of 1854, and on the 5th November,
Which Britain will no doubt long remember,
When the Russians plotted to drive the British army into the sea,
But at the bayonet charge the British soon made them flee.
With fourteen hundred British, fifteen thousand Russians were driven back,
At half-past seven o'clock in the morning they made the attack,
But the Grenadiers and Scottish Fusilier Guards, seven hundred strong,
Moved rapidly and fearlessly all along.
And their rifles were levelled ready for a volley,
But the damp had silenced their fire which made the men feel melancholy,
But the Russians were hurled down the ravine in a disordered mass
At the charge of the bayonet-- an inspiring sight!-- nothing could it surpass.
General Cathcart thought he could strike a blow at an unbroken Russian line;
Oh! the scene was really very sublime,
Because hand to hand they fought with a free will,
And with one magnificent charge they hurled the Russians down the hill.
But while General Cathcart without any dread
Was collecting his scattered forces, he fell dead,
Pierced to the heart with a Russian ball,
And his men lamented sorely his downfall.
While the Duke of Cambridge with the colours of two Regiments of Guards
Presses forward, and no obstacle his courage retards,
And with him about one hundred men,
And to keep up their courage he was singing a hymn to them.
Then hand to hand they fought the Russians heroically,
Which was a most inspiring sight to see;
Captain Burnaby with thirteen Guardsmen fighting manfully,
And they drove the Russians down the hillside right speedily.
The French and Zouaves aided the British in the fight,
And they shot down and killed the Russians left and right,
And the Chasseurs also joined in the fight,
And the Russians fell back in great afright.
Then the Russians tried again and again
To drive the British from the slopes of Inkermann, but all in vain,
For the French and British beat them back without dismay,
Until at last the Russians had to give way.
And the French and British fought side by side
Until the Russians no longer the bayonet charge could abide,
And the Russians were literally scorched by the musketry fire,
And in a short time the Russians were forced to retire.
Then the British and the French pursued them into the depths of the ravine,
Oh! it was a grand sight-- the scene was really sublime--
And at half-past one o'clock the Russians were defeated,
And from the field of Inkermann they sullenly retreated.
Then the Battle of Inkermann was won,
And from thefield the Russians were forced to run,
But the loss of the British was terrible to behold;
The dead lay in heaps stiff and cold,
While thousands of Russians were dying with no one to aid them,
Alas! Pitiful to relate, thousands of innocent men.
poem by William Topaz McGonagall
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Italians are wise before the act, the Germans in the act, the French after the act.
Influenced By Europeans
As An American I can say,
I've been influenced by Europeans.
I grew up with Jews and Italians,
Most of my young life.
My high school had a mixture,
Of Russians, Portuguese, French
And Spaniards.
Who would find me humorous...
When the teacher saw my hand raised,
To sometimes ignore.
Until I made outbursts.
Expecting from her more.
I took two years of French.
And had friends of several races.
Then one day all of that was changed.
When the city I now live in...
Became a place for bigoted racists.
Oh there may be many who will try to deny what I say.
But when I was a child,
Where I live wasn't divided as it is today.
With waves of bused in suburbanites...
Coming to work during the day.
To leave their jobs for an urban flight!
When I was a child,
Not much of that was in sight!
The first time I heard the word 'nigger'
Was from a Black music teacher,
Who wanted to impress.
Reminding us of how she felt.
And made sure to us that was addressed.
Oh yes!
As An American I can say,
I've been influenced by Europeans.
I grew up with Jews and Italians,
Most of my young life.
My high school had a mixture,
Of Russians, Portuguese, French
And Spaniards.
Who would find me humorous...
When the teacher saw my hand raised,
To sometimes ignore.
Until I made outbursts.
Expecting from her more.
And I was not hushed,
Until I got it!
Dedicated:
To those friends I remember
from Northeast Junior High School
and Hartford Public High School.
Just a 'few' years ago.
Or, more appropriately, decades
that seemed to have flown away.
~LSP~
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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The Italians cry, the Germans bawl, and the French sing.
Conscious Enough to Notice
And now it seems...
There is a global economic crisis.
Experienced by the Germans,
French...
Russians.
And those of British descent!
A commonness shared.
Allies declaring a need for a fix!
All coming together,
For a One World 'gathering'!
That benefits a unitedness,
To exist!
'What about the others? '
Their pockets are financing this!
With few observing it...
Who remain conscious enough to notice.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Battle of the Herrings
A fishing action
North of France
1429 took place
Cause of battle
French vs. English
Anticipation/baited breath
River – flat plain
Set up strategy
Hook/line/sinker
British attacked first
French were slow
English bombarded fish
French did not
want to get
their shoes wet
Were most certain
outflanked by British
French counter attacked
Used Brie instead
of slippery worms
Won the fishing
competition – yelled Viva’
la fishermen French
“What was that”?
asked the English
“What’s the matter
with you cockneys
Hard of Herring? ”
'2008'
poem by Robert Sheridan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The lucky thing was that I was Italian; when the other Italians saw me fight back, they came to my defence.
quote by Gregory Corso
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Penal Transportation: Forgotten Gaelic Slaves
Such a nice girl
funny she never married.
Such a nice girl
money purchases only pearls.
Not so convicts
transported by merchants
auctioned off
to plantation owners
upon arrival
in the American colonies.
Penal labour
was slave labour severe
physical
punishment... included
capital
punishment by flaying.
British French Spanish
colonial empires exploited
parts of North America
as penal colonies to cheaply...
develop an economically
underdeveloped
part of a state's colonial
territories. Slavery
even disguised as indentured
servitude of youth.
Many prisoners died
from excessive
labour, hunger, disease,
medical neglect
or during escape attempts.
It is estimated that 50,000
British convicts
were sent to colonial America
approximately
one-quarter of all British
emigrants
during the 18th century.
Wisdom
Sentimentality Sincerity.
Are free
inflating hearts that cannot
be free upon arrival
in colonial territories.
Voyages in linked chains
cannot rise
above treacherous currents
past embroiled
in conflict bitter misty
sentence dark green sea.
The United Kingdom deported its convicted criminals to her penal colonies in the Americas from the 1610s until the American Revolution in the 1770s. Dr John Dunmore Lang estimated 50,000 convicts were transported to North America, originally to New England. The majority were prisoners captured in battle who originated from Ireland or Scotland. Some were sold as slaves to the Southern states. See also ‘The Saga Of A Convict Lass’ the original template poem for a collage of poems, symbolic of collective convict suffering, yet unique experiences of individuals, during the penal transportation period; ‘Money Purchases Only Pearls’, ‘Flogged Upon Rack At Sea’ and ‘Sentenced For The Term Of Her Natural Life’ by Terence George Craddock.
poem by Terence George Craddock
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Napoleon Bonaparte
The world lay at his feet
and the whole of Europe he wanted to unite,
into Asia his armies swept
conquering Russia
until they met up with a fierce winter
and at Waterloo he had the British outgunned
until rain fell for days
and his big guns got stuck in the mud.
Whatever stories history, the Russians
and the British do tell,
against nature and its Creator
Napoleon’s armies did fall.
poem by Gert Strydom
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The United States can tell you all about what's wrong with the British, to say nothing of the Russians.
quote by Arthur Hays Sulzberger
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I think that we must come together progressively, with the British, the Germans, the Spanish, the Italians and with the new members of the European Union, we must make an effort to forge closer links.
quote by Jean-Pierre Raffarin
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Macaronis
Italian people peaceful are,--
Let it be to their credit.
They mostly fail to win a war,
--Oh they themselves have said it.
"Allergic we to lethal guns
And military might:
We love our homes and little ones,
And loath to fight."
But Teutons are a warrior race
Who seek the sword to rattle;
And in the sun they claim a place,
Even at price of battle.
The prestige of a uniform
Is sacred in their sight;
They deem that they are soldiers born
And might is right.
And so I love Italians though
Their fighting powers are petty;
My heart with sympathy doth go
To eaters of spaghetti.
And if the choice were left to me,
I know beyond a doubt
A hundred times I'd rather be
A Dago than a Kraut.
poem by Robert William Service
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That was after Napoleon died because there is still a controversy as to whether Napoleon was poisoned with arsenic. And the French say the British did it and the British say the French did it, but he died before the test for arsenic was available.
quote by Michael Baden
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The extraordinary exertions of the colonies, in cooperation with British measures, against the French, in the late war, were acknowledged by the British parliament to be more than adequate to their ability.
quote by Mercy Otis Warren
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Russians imitate French ways, but always at a distance of fifty years.
My father was a poor man, very poor in a British colonial possession where class and race were very important.
quote by Sidney Poitier
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Canadian born
We first saw light in Canada, the land beloved of God;
We are the pulse of Canada, its marrow and its blood:
And we, the men of Canada, can face the world and brag
That we were born in Canada beneath the British flag.
Few of us have the blood of kings, few are of courtly birth,
But few are vagabonds or rogues of doubtful name and worth;
And all have one credential that entitles us to brag--
That we were born in Canada beneath the British flag.
We've yet to make our money, we've yet to make our fame,
But we have gold and glory in our clean colonial name;
And every man's a millionaire if only he can brag
That he was born in Canada beneath the British flag.
No title and no coronet is half so proudly worn
As that which we inherited as men Canadian born.
We count no man so noble as the one who makes the brag
That he was born in Canada beneath the British flag.
The Dutch may have their Holland, the Spaniard have his Spain,
The Yankee to the south of us must south of us remain;
For not a man dare lift a hand against the men who brag
That they were born in Canada beneath the British flag.
poem by Emily Pauline Johnson
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Colonial governors and senior civil servants are not easy people to argue with, and I was not popular because of my criticism of the colonial service in Kenya.
quote by Louis Leakey
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The best thing we can do if we want the Russians to let us be Americans is to let the Russians be Russian.
quote by George Frost Kennan
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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