Dear Virginia Flaggers
In great appreciation of your deeds, which lift morale in all of the Southern States, I have composed a short poem for you. I only wish that it had been written by a more masterful pen than my own.
Alice Scott ~ San Antonio, Texas.
"CLEAR TO TEXAS"
by Alice Scott ~ San Antonio, Texas
Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Virginia Flaggers!
The voice of Dixie shouts elation!
You are a jewel in the Land O' Cotton,
Worthy descendants of a noble generation.
We find ourselves in daily battle,
Against attacks the enemy brings,
Attacks on our Confederate dead,
Attacks on all Confederate things.
Our bones grow weary from little rest,
Between each shameful wretched stunt.
But fear ye not - Virginia Flaggers,
Are riding swiftly to the front!
Our souls exhaust from heavy burden,
From all the hateful wicked wrongs,
But then we see our Southern Cross
a'flyin' high where she belongs!
All is well then with our souls,
Our Southern hearts once more renewed.
We look to-wards the Old Dominion,
With loving thoughts and gratitude.
Keep 'em flyin' great Virginians,
Keep singing songs of Dixieland!
We hear your voices clear to Texas,
We see those flags from the Rio Grand!
The voice of Dixie shouts elation!
You are a jewel in the Land O' Cotton,
Worthy descendants of a noble generation.
We find ourselves in daily battle,
Against attacks the enemy brings,
Attacks on our Confederate dead,
Attacks on all Confederate things.
Our bones grow weary from little rest,
Between each shameful wretched stunt.
But fear ye not - Virginia Flaggers,
Are riding swiftly to the front!
Our souls exhaust from heavy burden,
From all the hateful wicked wrongs,
But then we see our Southern Cross
a'flyin' high where she belongs!
All is well then with our souls,
Our Southern hearts once more renewed.
We look to-wards the Old Dominion,
With loving thoughts and gratitude.
Keep 'em flyin' great Virginians,
Keep singing songs of Dixieland!
We hear your voices clear to Texas,
We see those flags from the Rio Grand!
1 comment:
Alice’s words go beyond poetic to lyrical. There’s a tune to them. Her call of course on whether it stays as a poem alone. But she could easily have both. Its lyrical nature is undeniable so...
The old-school, traditional wording calls out with a bit of a Scottish Highlands’ feeling. The first four lines the obvious chorus. Some poetry-to-lyrical tweaking of the wording reveals the flow of the simple melody line.
Only seven keys on the piano are required to play a part of the melody that gets to the gist of it, six black keys... one white.
I use a music syllabary to jot down this sort of tune. It’s a textable form of piano music notation that’s easy to learn. Each piano key is given its own one syllable name. You write the piano key name above the word it goes with in the lyrics.
If you don’t have a piano handy... use an online keyboard or a free piano app for a phone or tablet. You could peck out the tune with about a minute of instruction basics. Only seven keys, one key after another so no great strain once the keys have names.
Ok. For any novices... there’s a repeating duo-trio, duo-trio pattern to the black keys on the piano. In the center of the keyboard there’s a black duo. The left duo black key is named ‘Ji’, the right one ‘Ri’.
The black trio to the right of the Ji,Ri duo has the names Hi, Yi, Ti. Then comes the next duo to the right of that trio. Those are Jo and Ro but the Ro key isn’t used for this.
Ji,Ri , , Hi,Yi,Ti , , Jo,Ro ,,
Between the Ji,Ri duo and the Hi,Yi,Ti trio just to the left of the Hi key is the white key Vi. I’ll use lower case here so it’s easier to spot the lone whitey.
Ji,Ri , vi Hi,Yi,Ti , , Jo
Blogspot’s gonna jam the key names together, wrecking the vertical alignment over the words. Oh well... here’s the heart of it:
Yi Yi Yi Yi Yi Hi Ti Hi Yi vi
Our souls exhaust from the heavy burden,
Yi Yi Yi Yi Hi Ti Hi Yi
From all the hateful wicked wrongs,
Yi Jo Yi Ti Yi Ti Yi vi
But then we see our Southern Cross
Ji Ji vi Yi vi Ri Ji Ji
a' flyin' high where she belongs!
Jo Yi Ti Yi Ti Ti Yi vi Ji
Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Virginia Flag-gers!
Jo Jo Yi Ti Yi Ti Yi vi
The voice of Dixie shouts with you!
Jo Jo Yi Ti Ti Ti Ti Yi vi Ji
You are a jew’l in the Land O' Cot-ton,
Ji Ji vi Yi vi Ji Ri Ri Ji Ji
Worthy descendants so noble an’ true.
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