‘Pantisocracy’ means ‘equal or level government for all’. The idea was that friends Robert Southey, Robert Lovell and Coleridge would move to the banks of the Susquehanna in America to start a new and better life.
Pantisocracy was the reason Coleridge married Sara Fricker (the three friends married three sisters; wives being a necessary part of their community) and like many of his schemes it was full of hope and optimism; but the practicalities meant that Southey and Coleridge ended up unable to even agree whether they should settle by the waters of America or Wales! Pantisocracy collapsed.
lyrics
Three sons and daughters, girls and men,
Each to marry a courter,
Vowed to leave all they had and prepare
To go and live by the water.
Three wives and husbands, all as friends,
Each to found a new order,
Vowed to work in the wide open
When they live out by the water.
Oh one for Edith young and free,
And one for lovely Mary,
One for Sara who will be
The girl that I shall marry.
Three sons and daughters, girls and men,
Each to start an uprising,
Vowed to prosper good will to men
All by new waters residing.
Three wives and husbands, all as friends,
Each to leave all they own, for they
Vowed to work in the wide open and
Build a life by the water.
Oh one for Edith young and free,
And one for lovely Mary,
One for Sara who will be
The girl that I shall marry.
Three sons and daughters, girls and men,
Each to walk up the alter,
Vowed to leave all they had and prepare
To go and live by the water.
Three wives and husbands fall as friends
Pantisocracy falters…
Vowed to work in the wide open but
Couldn’t agree on the waters!
Oh one for Edith young and free,
And one for lovely Mary,
One for Sara who will be
The girl that I shall marry.
credits
from Esteesee,
released September 24, 2015
On the album: Ange Hardy (vocals, guitar & whistle), Patsy Reid (fiddle), Lukas Drinkwater (double bass) and Archie Churchill-Moss (diatonic accordion).
Nominated for the Horizon Award for best emerging talent at the 2015 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, Ange Hardy is a folk singer,
songwriter and recording artist from West Somerset, England. Ange performs original contemporary songs written in a traditional style with an emphasis on vocal harmony....more
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