[Cross-posted at The Daily Kos.]
JISHOU, HUNAN — It’s getting to be speechifying season here again, and my first judging gig this year was a recitation contest for non-English majors.
The 29 contestants’ selections were a compendium of uplifting quotations, essays, poems, songs and miscellania that could have come from one of those never-ending paperbacks full of uplifting quotations, essays, poems, songs and miscellania. In fact, that’s where some of them came from. I think it’s an unwritten rule here that English recitation material has to be really sappy and sentimental.
Having nothing better to do than marking about 100 tests (no joke), I spent a couple of hours one night checking the provenance of all these uplifting pieces about love, mom, friendship, self-worth, growing old, love, life’s setbacks, and mom.
Here’s a rundown of the afternoon’s selections, to give you an idea of what I mean.
Taking the prize for the oldest selection is “My luve is like a red, red rose,” from 1794, attributed to Robert Burns. He collected and preserved old songs and poems in Scots, like this one, for posterity. That’s how we still have “Auld Lang Syne.”
It’s short, so here’s the poem in its entirety. Save it for Valentine’s Day, boys.
My Luve is Like a Red, Red Rose
Robert Burns 1794, from traditional sourcesO, my luve is like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June:
O, my luve is like the melodie,
That’s sweetly play’d in tune.
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