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I murder hate
I murder hate by flood or field,
Tho' glory's name may screen us;
In wars at home I'll spend my blood
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Life-giving wars of Venus.
The deities that I adore
Are social Peace and Plenty;
I'm better pleased to make one
more,
Than be the death of twenty.
I would not die like Socrates,
For all the fuss of Plato;
Nor would i with Leonidas,
Nor yet would i with Cato:
The zealots of the church and state
Shall ne'er my mortal foe be;
But let me have bold Zimri's fate,
Within the arms of Cozbi!
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A great poem, which shows that Burns
was an educated man. Socrates commited suicide,
because the govn of his day was against his ideas &
Plato praised him for his action. Leonidas,
King of Sparta, died in the same battle, which helped
Cato, the elder, [Roman] to achieve fame, since he &
his soldiers flattened Sparta. When he talks about the
zealots of the church and state, he was thinking about
the French revolution, where a lot of people got killed just so
that others could take over leadership. Zimri
and Cozbi were biblical characters. He was a
jew & opposed Moses [who forbid his people to marry into other
races] by marrying Cosbi. They were both killed in each others
arms.
Transcription of poem and comments
contribtued by Siegrun
Macgilchrist
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