Wednesday 20 June 2012

Scott’s Antarctic Expedition Learns from Nature.

George Levick was the scientist with Scott's ill fated quest to reach the south pole. George was appalled at what he saw as depraved sexual behaviour by male penguins, describing some males as hooligans. To fulfil his obligation to record his findings but to hide his embarrassment, he wrote of the penguins in Greek. His notes have now been released. From a 2012 perspective, inserting moral judgement into a scientific record of the behaviour of animals is extraordinary and laughable. So have a laugh.

 













In far away Antarctica
George Levick wrote in Greek
“Male penguins there are hooligans
No morals, so to speak”.

“They go around that frozen waste,
Those base bi-sexual lads,
And stick it into anything!
Alive or dead, the cads!”

And so Scott’s men decided they
Would stay until next season
To give them time to teach those penguins
Moral sense and reason.

Alas, a hundred years has passed
And none has been converted
In fact it seems, the men who stayed
Became themselves ‘perverted’.

For look around and you will see
Behaviour that they learned
Has now become so commonplace
It is no longer spurned.

Homosexuals walking free-
Being gay’s an institution,
And penguins of Antarctica
Are safe from retribution.

10 comments:

  1. How appropriate he penned his notes in Greek!!!

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    1. It must have been modern Greek. The ancient Greeks would have expected it!

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  2. If I had to live in frigid darkness for months at a time, it would make me depraved, so I give them my blessing. I just hope the females are equally depraved. If so, it might be the best of all worlds.

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    1. N-ice to see you Snow, or maybe considering the subject, I will call you Brush this time!

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  3. Good to see you at Poetry24 - I commented over there :) Have they changed their rules about having it on your blog? I think they have - I read the sub guidelines and they've changed (unless I'm reading them wrong).

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    1. As I understand it, the rules are that one posts on 24 then after it appears on 24, it's OK to repeat in on the home blog. But Martin and Clare do ask that one links back to 24.

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  4. Lovely translation, Stafford. Thanks for the hysteria lesson.

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  5. Chuckles! On Craiglist it would be 'Animals looking for Animals' In the barren South there could not be anything else, anyway! Great take Stafford!

    Hank

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  6. Stafford - you have just made me laugh - one of them snorty ones, too - out loud in the library! Verse 2 rocks!

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    1. Good. I hope Chief Librarian kept you under control... no I don't!

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