Pure blue Flag of Heaven
With your Silver Stars,
Not beside those Crosses'
Blood-stained torture-bars:
Not beside the token
The foul sea-harlot gave,
Pure blue Flag of Heaven,
Must you ever wave!
No, but young exultant,
Free from care and crime,
The soulless selfish England
Of this later time:
No, but, faithful, noble
Rising from her grave,
Flag of light and liberty,
For ever must you wave!
The Australian Flag. Francis Adams. 1909.
posted by rackorf at 2:05 AM
3 Comments:
Hey Rackorf,
Re. previous posting comments (I usually put my comments in the most recent entry), thank you for the compliment. Astronomy writing has always been a favorite of mine.
The Earth moves on average 30 kilometers/second or 18 miles/second as it orbits the Sun. This is a mean velocity since the orbit is slightly elliptical and the Earth is traveling faster when it is closest to the Sun (early January) than when it is farthest (early July). Kepler's Law going on there.
So what is the flag pictured in this entry? It looks like the British Union Jack won out over Mr. Adams's sentiments...
Re. the nightsky, well, it pretty much sucks a lot of the time ... I mean, there is so much light pollution in the mid Atlantic megalopolis, though some nights can be quite starry, at least comparatively so. Out in the Shenandoah/Blue Ridge of Virginia or the Alleghenies of Pennsylvania it is much better.
Do you ever visit this guy Rich's blog? I only mention it because he apparently was just in Australia ... not sure if you know him or it is just a coincidence.
Lastly, I added you to my links list on my blog page.
Rackorf, are you doing to write a story about Arcturus now? Hope it's a nice one....
Hi Arcturus,
30km/sec - whooeee - feel the breeze!
RE; the flag - well it might look like the " Blood-stained torture bars" won out, but you'll see the Eureka flag flying lots of places over here, from the top of the tallest crane on just about every construction site, to bike runs and private homes. Kind of an "up yours" to authority - which is a revered Aussie tradition.
Hi littlethings - I always write nice stories, well sometimes. Hope you enjoyed the last one ;)
I thought that your last posts were pretty touching, make sure that you catch up with your dad when you can. Never lose hope.
(I'm glad that jj got told. what an arsehole!!)
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