The Druids’ Last Sacrifice

The Druids’ Last Sacrifice

The ancient Druids offer’d to their gods
A human sacrifice, and criminals
On their stone altars bled beneath the knife
The priestly arm upraised, rudely to plunge
Into an erring brother’s living heart, 5
Or else, in osier cages first confined,
Expired in flames lit by some priestly hand:
And we, whose scaffolds oft have reek’d with gore
Of earth’s best benefactors; we, whose cells
Have prison’d up the patriot and divine; 10
And who still struggle with the hangman’s rope
To teach the sanctity of human life;
And ever study how to cheat in trade
Or kill in war with most proficiency,
Self-righteous hypocrites who deceive 15
Ourselves and one another; we despise
The Druid for his paganism, meanwhile
We worship Gold as though it were a god,
And call ourselves good Christians.

George Markham Tweddell - writing as as Peter Proletarius
[From Tweddell’s People’s History of Cleveland, vol. 4, p. 96.
Middlesbrough Miscellany, No. 9. Northern Echo, Aug. 25/91. Also on:

http://megalithicpoems.blogspot.co.uk/2007/04/ancient-druids.html

And Julian Cope's blog http://www.headheritage.co.uk/headtohead/tma/topic/23046/flat/500
Cooper’s Journal
p. 263

Fitzcoraldo wrote on the entry on Julian Cope's Head to Head forum c 2009 -

Tweddell also wrote;

“Scoff not at antiquarian research,
As useless in results; for it throws light
Upon the darkness of the past to aid
Humanity along its devious way”

While commentator Littlestone offered a modern comparison of Tweddell's poem written in the 19thC.

"Or kill in war with most proficiency,
Self-righteous hypocrites who but deceive
Ourselves and one another; we despise
The Druid for his paganism, meanwhile
We worship Gold as though it were a god,
And call ourselves good Christians" Excerpt from Tweddell

"Old Proletarius seems to have been quite the socialist - and a Freemason to boot. Couldn't help thinking how little has changed since his day and how well his words fit present politics. Slight reworking of the above for Bush, Blare and their politics in the Middle East - hope Old Proletarius would approve ;-)

"Or kill in war with most proficiency,
Self-righteous hypocrites who but deceive
Ourselves and one another; we despise
The Muslim for his terrorism, meanwhile
We worship Oil as though it were a god,
And call ourselves good Christians." 

Littlestone's update on the Tweddell poem