Ho! Why dost thou shiver and shake, Gaffer Gray? And why doth thy nose look so blue? “’Tis the weather that’s cold; ’Tis I’m grown very old, And my doublet is not very new, Well-a-day!' Then line thy worn doublet with ale, Gaffer Gray; And warm thy old heart with a glass. “Nay but credit I’ve none; And my money’s all gone; Then say how may that come to pass? Well-a-day!” Hie away to the house on the brow, Gaffer Gray; And knock at the jolly priest’s door. “The priest often preaches Against worldly riches; But ne’er gives a mite to the poor, Well-a-day!” The lawyer lives under the hill, Gaffer Gray: Warmly fenced both in back and in front. “He will fasten his locks, And will threaten the stocks, Should he ever more find me in want, Well-a-day!” The squire has fat beeves and brown ale, Gaffer Gray; And the season will welcome you there. “His fat beeves and his beer, And his merry new year, Are all for the flush and the fair, Well-a-day!” My keg is but low I confess, Gaffer Gray; What then? While it lasts, man, we’ll live. The poor man alone, When he hears the poor moan, Of his morsel a morsel will give, Well-a-day! Thomas Holcroft (1745-1809) - "Gaffer Gray" from The New Oxford Book of Eighteenth-Century Verse
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#225 – The invention of the wheel, and the power of storytelling – Human Voices Wake Us
An episode from 4/13/26: Tonight, I read about the invention of the wheel and what it meant for the earliest communities of Europe and the Eurasian steppes, from David Anthony’s The Horse, the Wheel, and Language.After this, a few passages from Norman Longmate’s How We Lived Then: A History of Everyday Life During the Second World War tells the story of gasoline rationing in England during the war, and the sometimes-comical lengths people went to hoard the fuel they could get a hold of.Finally, passages from S. Y. Agnon’s Days of Awe: A Treasury of Jewish Wisdom for Reflection, Repentance, and Renewal on the High Holy Days and Gershom Scholem’s Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism illustrate the power of language and storytelling in the Jewish tradition.The best way to support the podcast is by leaving a review on Apple or Spotify, sharing it with others, or sending me a note on what you think. You can also order any of my books: Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, Notes from the Grid, To the House of the Sun, The Lonely Young & the Lonely Old, and Bone Antler Stone. I've also edited a handful of books in the S4N Pocket Poems series. I also have a YouTube channel where I share poems and excerpts from these books, mostly as YouTube shorts.Email me at humanvoiceswakeus1@gmail.com.
- #225 – The invention of the wheel, and the power of storytelling
- #224: Let's talk about William Blake
- #223 – How to write two novels at the same time, with Charles Dickens
- #222: Seamus Heaney – 10 Essential Poems
- #221: Volcanoes, Plagues & the Childhood of a Kabbalist
- #220: The working poor and a so-so murder show
- #219: When a paragraph changes your life
- #218: Poetry to Live By
- #217: Voices from 1900-1914
- #216: Poets, Prophets, Seeresses & Goddesses from Time & the River
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