Sunday, April 29, 2007

Jacob Bronowski's Christmas Card

Watergate
- an act of voiding urine:
Jamieson's Dictionary of the Scottish Language, 1808

"I'll watch your watergate": that is, "I'll watch for an advantage over you." - Kelly's Collection of Scottish Proverbs, 1721

With what contempt the Scot's defined
The sly betrayal of their kind,
Blasting with prophetic rage
The desecration of the age.

Some elective Pharisee
Having bugged the Christmas tree
Or muzzled them with privilege
Gave their tongue an acid edge.

To fix a synonym for rage
Without benefit of tape,
And assure posterity
No mincing prince will go scot-free.





Source: Listener, 23 December 1973.