I get it now. Thanks to a BBC documentary of the same name.
It was scored as a recruiting song during World War I.
It was used by the suffragettes.
It is the Tories most popular national song, but is used by Labour, too. By the racist far right, and by Fat Les.
It appeals to country folk living in the green and pleasant land.
And to city folk living amidst the dark Satanic Mills.
It unites: conservative and socialist, black, white and brown, straight and gay, country and city, batty and rational. They are all English. It was birthed by four of England's best: Blake, Bridges, Parry, and Elgar.
And the key stanza for English is,
I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
It was scored as a recruiting song during World War I.
It was used by the suffragettes.
It is the Tories most popular national song, but is used by Labour, too. By the racist far right, and by Fat Les.
It appeals to country folk living in the green and pleasant land.
And to city folk living amidst the dark Satanic Mills.
It unites: conservative and socialist, black, white and brown, straight and gay, country and city, batty and rational. They are all English. It was birthed by four of England's best: Blake, Bridges, Parry, and Elgar.
And the key stanza for English is,
I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In England's green and pleasant land.
It is forward looking. As one man said to the BBC, "It is not my country right or wrong, but my country right."
Watch and listen here, to, in the opinion of this ancestral half-Englishman, the most inspirational version (with drums and trumpet!) of this inspirational anthem for England. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF7llhC7MLM