(in memory of Jonathan Martin (1782-1838) who set York Minster on fire in 1829)
‘My soul’s full of glory, which inspires my tongue,
Could I meet with Angels I’d sing them a song;
I’d sing of my Jesus and tell of his charms,
And beg them to bear me to his loving arms.’
With his fiery red whiskers
and eyes burning with rage,
Jonathan Martin broke out of his cage
to set York Minster ablaze.
Selling pamphlets of his life
so his dreams would always shine,
his lips to the tips of an angel’s wing,
he said he’d brought the sun.
He told the ‘Lord’s Folk’ around him,
those Citizens of Devilish Mind:
‘Hell is opening to take you,
ye blind leaders of the blind.’
When half-past two o’clock struck,
he lighted up his fires
and this crazy Incendiary of Unsound Mind
ignited his wildest desires.
And it’s blood, fire and smoke,
long may you Beef-eaters choke.
You serpents and vipers of Hell,
in flames your Minster I burn.
‘Lord what a wretched land is this,
that yields us no supply.
No cheering fruits, no wholesome trees,
nor streams of living joy!
But pricking thorns through all the ground
and mortal poisons grow;
and all the rivers are found
with dangerous waters flow ...............
Long nights and darkness dwell below,
with scarce a twinkling ray;
but the bright world to which we go
is everlasting day.’
And its blood, fire and smoke,
long may you Beef-eaters choke.
You serpents and vipers of Hell,
with flames your Minster I burn.
Keith Armstrong
