Such A Parcel Of Rogues In A Nation Revisited

Steeleye Span: Parcel of Rogues

And what joy, think ye,
did they feel
after the exceedingly long
and troublous ascent?
---After scrambling,
pulling, pushing, lifting,
gasping, looking, hoping,
despairing, climbing,
holding on, falling off,
trying, puffing, loosing,
gathering, talking,
stepping, grumbling,
anathematizing, scraping,
hacking, bumping, jogging,
overturning, hunting, standing,
---for know ye,
by these methods alone
are the most divine mysteries
of the Quest revealed?

--J. Norman Collie
(on Scotland's Tower Ridge in winter)

Alastair McDonald: Parcel of Rogues