By the way, at the risk of possibly being labeled "pedantic" yet again, but thinking only in terms of "credit where credit is due," the quotation (...) is from "Leaves of Grass" by American poet Walt Whitman.

It's an odd thing but given the state of limbo we've been living in here in Lytham St Annes for the past 8 months whilst trying to sell our house in Durham (i.e. everything but the essentials in storage, everything else in open boxes, unwilling unpack too much in our rented flat in the servants quarters of a huge old mock-Tudor mansion by the sea because we know, sooner or later, we'll be on the move again...) that I found my old copy of Leaves of Grass straightaway - a Bantam Classic paperback reprint of the 1892 Deathbed Edition (it says) gifted to me by an old (American) girlfriend back in 1992. But get this, turning instinctively to Song of Myself I land after a mere five minutes browsing on the appropriate piece. For those who don't have a copy of the book to hand, it's on-line too at Song of Myself - worth reading in its entirety I'd say, but the Wicker Man quote comes from the opening of Part 32.

This reminds me of the time back in 1978/79 when I was working with special needs adults, and one old chap heaved a sigh about the moral & spiritual decline of popular culture in general & music in particular, singling out for special attention the nonsensical lyrics of Boney M's By the Rives of Babylon. This chap was never without his Bible, and was absolutely made up when I drew his attention to Psalm 137, after which, of course it became his favourite song of all time. Give a thing a source and let the meaning shine through! So, thanks again Don for contextualising something that has always haunted me, and given me cause to open a book, unopened, for whatever reason, since 1992!