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Spelling Bee
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Posts: 2,754
Join Date: Jun 2005
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Anyone knows the full words to 'All the Little Angels' -
09-19-2006, 23:26
Additional stuff:
From Samantha Vimes:
Quote:
Full version never given, but it starts with "heads up" and works it's way down, including naughty bits.
Why is it there at all? Layers of meaning, I think, but some things it makes me think of...
Reg does actually rise up, not as an angel, either.
"Rise up" can refer to the spirits rising from the bodies of the dead, or it can mean the "rise up" as in rising up in revolt-- the 'angels' or innocents of the city are rising up to demand some justice.
The song is a song of mourning, though, essentially, as the book centers around seven graves that Vimes doesn't want to see filled. Men who died because they did what they felt was right rather than what was safe. While the song had been used as a war song, the meaning that impressed itself on Vimes and the other survivors was that of mourning, and while the People's Republic barely merits a few sentences in the history books, to the people who were there, "All the Little Angels", the scent of lilacs, and the small plot in Small Gods are all the memorial ever needed.
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From me:
Quote:
An indication of what Pterry was trying to do with the song lies in how he changed the words from the traditional.
The trad version (which I think I posted in another thread) says:
All the little angels are sent up, are sent up etc
Hence 'Which end up? Arse end up?' And the other variations Pterry uses.
However, he's changed the line that gives rise to all the amusing wordplay, and made it 'rise up'. Which has the connotations Samantha suggests above.
A rude, soldiers' marching song, the reasons behind the words lost or forgotten, that has turned into something else, more serious and thought-provoking. Like soldiers who go to war, or people starting a rebellion; they start off all cheerful and full of hope, then when people start to get killed, reality hits home.
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Mrs G
The Garner who cares.
Last edited by Hsing; 07-06-2007 at 08:15.
Reason: fixed codes after board update
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