12 February 2010

Cabbage fever

Following on from my "Joy of cabbage" post, last month, Martin Brown has not taken up any of my requests but he has targeted another staple of my primary school memories: John Masefield's Sea fever.

Next stop Cargoes? I lack Mr Brown's talent, but I'll have a low-rent stab at the third stanza:

Over cooked cabbage in a school-dinners kitchen,
Shunted round the plate in the dire lunch hours,
With a backwash of swede mush,
Turnip, gristle,
Gravy, parsnip, and glum small boys.

The first and second stanzas, of course, would be much more salubrious ... I can see those glossy, proud "cabbages of Nineveh" and "stately Spanish cabbages" in my minds eye...

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