"All the brass instruments and big drums in the world cannot turn `God Save the King' into a good tune, but on the very rare occasions when it is sung in full it does spring to life in the two lines:

Confound their politics,

Frustrate their knavish tricks!

And, in fact, I had always imagined that the second verse is habitually left out because of a vague suspicion on the part of the Tories that these lines refer to themselves." -- George Orwell (1943)

Even more impressive, to me, are the lines "May she defend our laws, And ever give us cause To sing with heart and voice," etc. Invoking divine aid to make the Sovereign mind her business shows a lively appreciation of a continuing problem.

--- Joe Fineman    joe_f@verizon.net

||: First you find out that there is no Santa Claus, then that there is no God, and then that there are no grownups. :||