Another Student Assignment Poem, this one After “Lyke Wake Dirge.” (a traditional English song that telling of the hazardous travels the soul faces on its way to purgatory.) Allen begins with a spontaneous couplet:
AG: “Turn in your homework this or next hour /and mark them with paradigms if it is in your power”
“And if you haven’t got it to turn it in now/ mark it up with your accents and I’ll pick it up Thursday, anyhow”
Next..what was it? –there were some paradigms, some imitations of “This ae night” (Lyke Wake Dirge). [to Student] – You got that one? want to try it?
Student: Okay. It’s called ” Boulderado’s Blue Brew” – [Student begins reading]
– One round will do will do/As we drink a brew/a shot of booze one or two/ and damned to be are you/ /Sing so sweet, sing so sweet,/ as we drink a brew/Home to Mom to suck her teat/ and damned to be are you..”
AG: And damp? are what?
Student: “And damned to be are you” – [continues] – “.. Tip the glass, enrich the soul/As we drink a brew/Smash smash, bang the bowls/ and damned to be are you/ O, I hear them calling blue/ as we drink a brew/a shot of booze/a slimy screw/And damned to be are you/ Take the knife, cut the tongue/ as we drink a brew/(cool here young, cool here young)/ but damned to be are you/ So place your feet most fast/while we drink a brew/Until the time has come to pass/ that damned to be are you/ One round will do, will do/ As we drink a brew/ A shot of booze one or two/ and damned to be are you”
AG: That’s pretty good. Actually, that’s interesting. I never had any.. I never worked in community with people trying to write rhythmic verse, rhythmic rhymed verse, so.. I’m sort of aghast …
Student: It’s fun.
AG: ..to find sometimes, when people don’t have a clear picture in mind, at least they can swing – which is nice.
Audio for the above can be heard here, beginning at approximately forty-one-and-a-half minutes in and concluding at approximately forty-three-and-three-quarter minutes in