SARAH BINKS - Library2

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SARAH BINKS
A MUSICAL TRIBUTE
Book by Ken Mitchell
Music by Douglas Hicton
Lyrics by Paul Hiebert
C 2001 by Ken Mitchell and Douglas Hicton. Based on the book Sarah
Binks by Paul Hiebert; permission granted by Oxford University Press.

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PLACE: A meeting of the Sarah Binks Memorial Society (in Willows).
CHARACTERS:
PAUL HIEBERT, the author and noted biographer.
SARAH BINKS, a dead poet. Sensitive but of limited education.
TWO SINGERS(BASS & ALTO)who play the other characters, male and female.
MUSIC I:2 "HIEBERT'S ENTRANCE"
(HIEBERT APPEARS. AUDIENCE APPLAUSE.)
HIEBERT: Welcome to this gathering of the Sarah Binks Memorial Society.
Tonight we mark the 50th anniversary of Sarah’s passing to a higher realm.
AUDIENCE: Hear, hear.
HIEBERT: A few of you knew The Sweet Songstress of Saskatchewan
personally. Others have been drawn here tonight by the fame of her legendary
pen. As her biographer, I only claim a small part in the growing pinnacle of her
reputation. (Copies of my book may be purchased at the conclusion of my talk.)
You know something about her life -- you know of her tragic death. You have
read about the honours she received, including that highest award in the panoply
of prairie culture, the Wheat Pool Medal. But the question remains. What
produced this rare flowering of literary genius -- perhaps second only to the great
Shakespeare That is the question I the biographer must answer.
(MUSIC ENDS)
HIEBERT:
farm.
MUSIC I:3
It is a long way from Stratford upon Avon to a Saskatchewan dirt
"THE FARMER IS KING"
HIEBERT: But the language that inspired England's greatest bard, also inspired
Sarah. When Sarah crooned euphorically about her stretch of gumbo, she sang
for the entire Canadian West.
(SINGS)
THE FARMER IS KING OF HIS PACKER AND PLOUGH,
OF HIS HARROWS AND BINDERS AND BREAKERS,
HE IS LORD OF THE PIG AND CZAR OF THE COW
ON HIS HUNDRED AND SIXTY-ODD ACRES!
THE FARMER IS MONARCH IN HIGH ESTATE,
OF HIS BARN AND HIS BACKHOUSE AND BYRE,
AND ALL THE BUILDINGS BEHIND THE GATE

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OF HIS TWO-ODD MILES OF BARBED WIRE.
THE FARMER IS EVEN CAESAR OF FREIGHT
AND TARIFF AND TAX, COMES ELECTION,
AND FROM THEN UNTIL THEN HE CAN ABDICATE,
AND BE KING ON HIS OWN QUARTER SECTION.
Sarah was born in the halcyon days of the Golden West, even before the
creation of Saskatchewan. The agricultural prosperity naturally produced an
artistic flowering as well, and Sarah expressed its artistic soul. Her love for the
alkaline soil was deep, and every spring, she spread her poetic fertilizer with a
lavish hand.
(PROJECTOR IMAGE OF SARAH, SPREADING FERTILIZER)
(SARAH THEME, “ODE TO SPRING”)
HIEBERT: There she stands at the gate of her father’s farm. Unschooled and
unspoiled, this simple farm girl captured the flatness of her native landscape, its
wildlife, the richness of its insect population. (MUSIC: INTO TO “ODE TO A
DESERTED FARM” BEGINS) Like a sylph she wandered through the coulees
and gopher meadows in a divine frenzy. Let us begin at the farm, alas now gone
forever, as Sarah indicated in “Ode to a Deserted Farm”
MUSIC II:7
SARAH:
"ODE TO A DESERTED FARM"
HOW CHANGED AND BLEAK THE MEADOWS LIE
AND OVERGROWN WITH HAY,
THE FIELDS OF OATS AND BARLEY
WHERE THE BINDER TWINED ITS WAY!
WITH DOORS AJAR THE COTTAGE STANDS
DESERTED ON THE HILL --
NO WELCOME BARK, NO THUDDING HOOF,
AND THE VOICE OF THE PIG IS STILL.
HIEBERT (IN ADMIRATION): "The voice of the pig is still." The lyrics are so
powerful, it’s as if we can hear her voice, crooning with grief, as it were, her spirit
come to inform us. Sarah Is it really you
SARAH:
about me.
HIEBERT:
SARAH:
Yes, it’s me. I've come to correct some of the things you said
Well, if I made mistakes, I’m more than willing to …
About Henry Welkin for example.

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HIEBERT: Of course, I'd be delighted to make corrections for the record. As
your humble biographer, I am only here to tell these people how you
transcended the soil of Willows, Saskatchewan. Let us start in Willows. How
would -- you describe it
SARAH: That's not so hard. It's a place halfway between Oak Bluff and
Quagmire. What else do they need to know
HIEBERT: Well – its appearance perhaps. I described its civic architecture as
unpretentious. A post office and a one-room school.
SARAH: How about Charley Wong's restaurant and billiard parlour It was
real pretentious! Plus a feed store, and four gas stations! It wasn't some
backward village, like you wrote in your book!
HIEBERT (PLEASED): You read my book
SARAH:
I glanced over it. I get around, now that I'm a spirit.
HIEBERT: Of course, the town has sadly declined since you lived here --
eclipsed by its glorious past. Yet to this shrine every year come members of the
Binks Memorial Society, who pause for refreshment at the Clarendon Hotel, or fill
up with gas at the "Sarah Binks Esso station."
SARAH: Actually, I never spent a lot of time in Willows myself. I liked it
better on the farm. Dad's place was ten miles outta town, out where the hand of
man hath never trod.
HIEBERT:
Then let us begin at the farm!
(PROJECTOR SHOWS HOUSE.)
HIEBERT: Not far from the slough where the mudhen builds its airy nest and
the pensive mosquito wanders unafraid…
(SARAH SLAPS HER ARM.)
…Jacob Binks built his sod hut, and later covered it with quality tar-paper.
Guests entered through the “back porch," a small antechamber where coal was
stored, along with winter potatoes and the cream separator.
SARAH:
And the busted harness.
HIEBERT: Here the chickens were plucked, and the eggs cleaned. Here slept
Rover, the Dog.

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SARAH:
And Ole, the hired man.
(SOUND OF OLE, SNORING.)
HIEBERT:
SARAH:
socks.
Ole slept in the porch
Ma insisted. But it wasn't 'cause he was Swedish. It was his
HIEBERT: Stepping into the kitchen, we see the very wall on which she wrote
her early poems. The poem "Calf" for example, one of her finest odes.
(PROJECTOR SHOWS CALF. SARAH BEGINS TO WEEP.)
MUSIC I:4
SARAH:
"OH, CALF"
My calf – Buster. He only lived two days!
HIEBERT: Could you – would you recite it The audience would love to hear
you render those haunting words.
SARAH:
I can sure as heck try! Just give me a sec.
(SARAH POSITIONS HERSELF BRAVELY.)
SARAH:
OH, CALF, THAT GAMBOLLED BY MY DOOR,
WHO MADE ME RICH, WHO NOW AM POOR,
THAT LICKED MY HAND, MY HAND WITH MILK BESPREAD,
HIEBERT AND SARAH: OH CALF, CALF! ART DEAD, ART DEAD
SARAH:
OH CALF, I SIT AND LANGUISH, CALF,
WITH SOMBER FACE, I CANNOT LAUGH,
CAN I FORGET THY PLAYFUL BUNTS
HIEBERT AND SARAH: OH CALF, CALF, THAT LOVED ME/HER ONCE!
SARAH:
WITH MILDEWED OPTICS, DEATHLIKE, STILL,
MY NIGHTS ARE DAMP, MY DAYS ARE CHILL,
I WEEP, I WEEP AGAIN WITH DOLEFUL SNIFF,
HIEBERT AND SARAH: OH CALF, CALF, CAAAAAAALF,
OH CALF, CALF, SO DEAD, SO STIFF.
(SARAH AND HIEBERT HONK INTO THEIR HANKIES.)

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HIEBERT:
SARAH:
HIEBERT:
Sarah learned early about the tragic reality of nature.
Yeah. I had to weed the garden and pick tater bugs!
But somehow she plodded on with her schooling.
SARAH: Well, I only got to school once a week or so. Had to help Dad with
the farm, you see.
HIEBERT: He was opposed to your schooling But wasn't he the chairman of
the Willows School Board
SARAH: They elected him every year, like clockwork. . He ran on the
slogan, "No dam sense in all this book learning! Cut the taxes!"
HIEBERT: Just like Shakespeare's father! All the more important that you
took your lessons in the school of nature. (TO AUDIENCE) To Sarah, nature
was something alive. Give her a dead field mouse, a crocus, or a jam pail full of
sowbugs, and poetry gushed forth unbidden, unrestrained and uncalled for.
MUSIC I:5
"THE GENIUS"
HIEBERT: As she reveals in her little poetic gem, "The Genius" -- composed
at the age of 12.
SARAH:
I'M A GENIUS, I'M A GENIUS,
WHAT MORE CAN I DESIRE
I TOOT UPON MY LITTLE FLUTE,
AND TWANG UPON MY LYRE;
I DABBLE IN OIL PAINT
IN CINNEBAR AND OCHRE,
ALL NIGHT I AM DISSIPATED,
AND PLAY POKER.
IN MY LITTLE BOOK, IN MY LITTLE BOOK
I WRITE VERSES,
SOMETIMES THEY DON'T RHYME --
CURSES!
HIEBERT: Sarah's formal education may have been scant, but she never let
that go to her head. And there were many other influences on Sarah's early

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work. There was Rover, the dog, Ole the Hired Man, Mathilda Schwantzhacker.
And of course Henry Welkin.
SARAH:
Henry Welkin You’re not going to start talking about him!
HIEBERT: Well, a little later, perhaps --
SARAH: If you’re interested in where I got my ideas from, let’s talk about my
father, Jacob Binks.
(PROJECTOR SHOWS JACOB BINKS.)
I think it all got said in the poem I dedicated to him.
HIEBERT:
SARAH:
MUSIC II:6
SARAH:
“To My Father, Jacob Binks”
Exactly!
"TO MY FATHER, JACOB BINKS"
I USED TO THINK THE CUT-WORM AND THE WEEVIL,
WERE THINGS THAT BLINDLY COME AND GO BY CHANCE,
AND HESSIAN-FLY AN UNDILUTED EVIL,
TO MAKE THE FARMER SHUDDER IN HIS PANTS;
BUT NOW I KNOW THEY HOLD HIM TO HIS ACRE,
FOR COULD HE EVER WIN AND TAKE HIS EASE,
HE'D UP AND LEAVE HIS BINDER AND HIS BREAKER,
AND GIVE THE PRECIOUS LAND BACK TO THE CREES.
ALL:
WOMEN:
MEN:
ALL:
TO THE CREES, TO THE CREES,
AND GIVE THE PRECIOUS LAND BACK TO THE CREES.
HE'D UP AND LEAVE HIS BINDER AND HIS BREAKER,
AND GIVE THE PRECIOUS LAND BACK TO THE CREES.
I USED TO THINK THE BEETLE AND THE HOPPER
WERE BUT A PEST, BUT NOW I REALIZE
THAT FRENCH-WEED AS A YIELD IS RIGHT AND PROPER,
AND CUT-WORMS ARE A BLESSING IN DISGUISE;
THAT RUST AND HAIL AND STEM-ROT ARE PROTECTION,
AND WHAT WE CALL THE DROUGHT YEAR IS A MEANS
TO KEEP THE FARMER ON HIS QUARTER-SECTION,
ALTHOUGH IT MAKES HIM TREMBLE IN HIS JEANS.
IN HIS JEANS, IN HIS JEANS,

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ALTHOUGH IT MAKES HIM TREMBLE IN HIS JEANS.
TO KEEP THE FARMER ON HIS QUARTER SECTION,
ALTHOUGH IT MAKES HIM TREMBLE IN HIS JEANS.
MATHILDA: THE THINGS THAT WE CALL TRIALS ARE A WARNING,
JACOB:
THE THING WE CALL THE GOPHER IS A BOON,
MATHILDA: FOR SHOULD A CROP APPEAR SOME EARLY MORNING,
JACOB:
HIEBERT:
SARAH:
ALL:
THE FARMER WOULD BE GONE BY AFTERNOON;
THE HOPPER SHOULD BE CHERISHED AND BE SHIELDED,
AND HESSIAN FLY IS SOMETHING WE SHOULD TRUST--
IF WHAT WE CALL THE CROP IS EVER YIELDED,
YOU'LL NEVER SEE THE FARMER FOR HIS DUST.
FOR HIS DUST, FOR HIS DUST,
YOU'LL NEVER SEE THE FARMER FOR HIS DUST.
IF WHAT WE CALL THE CROP IS EVER YIELDED,
YOU'LL NEVER SEE THE FARMER FOR HIS DUST.
HIEBERT: In any case, Jacob was not the only influence on your life. Surely
Ole the hired man also left an impression.
SARAH:
Yes but Ole's contribution wasn't really what you'd call mental.
HIEBERT: No. But to Ole the Swedish hired man, big of heart and big of feet,
must go the credit for inspiring some of Sarah's early work. He had shoulders of
gnarled oak.
SARAH:
And a head to match.
HIEBERT: In the short poem, "The Cursèd Duck", Sarah reveals her deep
compassion for Ole, following the loss of one of his ears. It appears the Binks
ducks had a penchant for cauliflower and we deduce from this ballad that Ole
inadvertently fell asleep in, or near, the vegetable patch one night.
MUSIC I:11 "THE CURSÈD DUCK"
SARAH:
OLE:
A CURSED DUCK PECKED OFF HIS EAR,
AND HIS FACE GREW PEAKED AND PALE;
"OH, HOW CAN A WOMAN LOVE ME NOW"

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SARAH:
SARAH:
WAS HIS CONSTANT AND LONELY WAIL.
BUT A WOMAN CAME, AND SHE LOVED THE MAN,
WITH A LOVE SERENE AND CLEAR.
SHE LOVED HIM AS ONLY A WOMAN CAN LOVE --
A MAN WITH ONLY ONE EAR.
HIEBERT: Thus Sarah introduced the figure of her bosom friend
Mathilda Schwantzhacker, the romantic inspiration for the great Gryczlkaeiouc
(pron. Gritchelkay'uke) symphony.
MUSIC I:12 "MATHILDA 1" (very short)
MUSIC I:13 "OLE AND MATHILDA"
SARAH: Mathilda lived half a mile down the road, the eldest of thirteen
Schwantzhacker girls. They came trooping over to entertain Ole at least once a
day.
HIEBERT: Ole was always deeply moved by the dramatic spectacle of thirteen
Schwantzhackers picking their way through the cow pasture. But he and Sarah
preferred Mathilda's company. She was the most intelligent.
SARAH:
HIEBERT:
Or the least cross-eyed.
And the only one with an ear for the Orphic muse.
(MUSIC SEGUES TO:)
MUSIC I:14 "WHERE SHALL I FIND A HIRED MAN"
HIEBERT: At Mathilda's request, Sarah composed this splendid tribute to Ole's
manhood, in the local dialect: "Where Shall I Find a Hired Man"
(SARAH HANDS MATHILDA A SHEET OF PAPER.)
MATHILDA: WHERE SHALL I FIND A HIRED MAN
FOR HOMELY DESTINY TO TOIL,
TO MEND HARNESSES,
AND SHOVEL CEMENT,
AND BOIL OIL.
WHERE SHALL I FIND A HIRED MAN
TO GATHER ROCKS AND DO THE CHORES,
TO HARROW WIDE,

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AND PLOW DEEP,
THE BIG OUTDOORS.
WHERE SHALL I FIND A HIRED MAN
WITH A SINGLE PASSION FOR HIS JOB,
WITH THOUGHTS OF WORK,
AND NOTHING ELSE,
WITHIN HIS KNOB.
WHERE SHALL I SEARCH FOR A HIRED MAN
WITH CORDED ARMS AND KNOTTED KNEES,
WITH BEAMED SHOULDERS,
AND FEET LIKE HERCULES'
HIEBERT:
This is a long poem for Sarah’s clearly nascent talent.
MATHILDA: It is a big poem. But then Ole was a big man, big in every way, you
can take it from me.
SARAH: Ole could certainly cause a stir. Then the war came, and he took
off to join the Canadian army. That was the last we seen of him. Mathilda was a
total wreck for a long time after he left. It was especially hard on her because
he'd gone to fight the Huns.
HIEBERT:
And the Schwantzhackers were German
SARAH: Exactly. That's when Mathilda talked me into translating poems
from German.
HIEBERT:
With the help of the family dictionary…
MUSIC I:15 "THE LAUREL'S EGG"
HIEBERT: … they translated several songs from the Teutonic, including the
famous "Die Lorelei".
SARAH:
I KNOW NOT WHAT SHALL IT BETOKEN,
THAT I SO SORROWFUL SEEM,
A MARKLET FROM OUT OF OLD, SPOKEN,
THAT COMES ME NOT OUT OF THE BEAN,
THAT COMES ME NOT OUT OF THE BEAN.
THE LOFT IS COOL AND IT DARKLES,
AND RUEFULLY FLOWETH THE CLEAN,
THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN-TOP SPARKLES,
IN EVENING SUN-SHINE SHEEN,

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IN EVENING SUN-SHINE SHEEN.
THE FAIREST YOUNG WOMAN SITTETH,
THERE WONDERFUL UP ON TOP,
HER GOLDEN-LIKE OUTFIT GLITTETH,
SHE COMBETH HER GOLDEN MOP;
SHE COMBS IT WITH GOLDEN COMB-FULL
AND SINGS ONE SONG THERETO,
THAT HAS ONE WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL,
AND POWERFUL TOODLE-DI-DOO.
(cadenza) AHHH --
I BELIEVE THAT THE WHALES WILL DEVOUR
THE END OF THE SHIPPER AND SHIP,
AND THAT HAS IN HER SINGING BOWER,
THE LAUREL'S EGG DONE IT,
THE LAUREL'S EGG DONE IT.
HIEBERT: Sarah's translation of the river Rhein as the River "Clean" is
masterful, despite the error in interpreting Die Lorelie as "The Laurel's Egg".
Sarah's experiments with the German language put her under a cloud of patriotic
suspicion, and she received an unexpected visit from the RCMP. To prove her
love of country, she sat down and dashed off her great hymn of heroic sacrifice -
inspired by her friend Ole, lost in the fields of Flanders.
MUSIC I:17 "FREEDOM"
ALL:
SHALL FREEDOM SHRIEK AGAIN,
SHALL FREEDOM WAIL,
OR STAND AT LAST, AGHAST,
WITH UNFURLED TAIL,
SHALL IT BENEATH THE IRON
TYRANT'S GUM-SHOE QUAIL
NAY! NOT WHILE YET IS LEFT
THE WIND WHEREWITH TO SOUND
THE BAGPIPE, NOT WHILE YET IS LEFT
THE STICK WHEREWITH TO POUND
THE SNARE-DRUM, NOT WHILE YET THE BLOOD
OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
FLOWS IN OUR VEINS,
SHALL THESE, OUR FOES, SUCCUMB US.

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HIEBERT: In her very next effort, Sarah shook off the cloud of suspicion that
her work had attracted, and wrote her finest work, "Ode to Spring"…
MUSIC I:18 "ODE TO SPRING" (UNDER HIEBERT)
HIEBERT: …which caused a furor when it appeared in The Horse-Breeder's
Gazette. Suddenly the voice of Sarah, The Sweet Songstress, burst upon the
Province like a Madrigal of cheer. No wonder Saskatchewan took her to its
broad, flat bosom! Sarah awoke to find herself a local celebrity and promptly
began the suite of poems now called the Gryczlkaeiouc (pron. Gritchelkay'uke)
Symphony. In this, she immortalized a new love affair of her confidante,
Mathilda.
MUSIC I:20 "MATHILDA 2" (very short)
HIEBERT: Further biographical insight is needed to appreciate the
complexities of the Gryczlkaeiouc Symphony.
SARAH: That's, uh, Grizzlykick
HIEBERT: Pardon
SARAH: Her boy friend's name was Stem Grizzlykick.
HIEBERT: Ah – again the local dialect.
MUSIC I:22 "SEGUE MUSIC"
HIEBERT:
There is evidence that Stem Gryczlkaeioo-ioo-ioo
TOGETHER: Grizzlykick
HIEBERT: …had already observed Mathilda and admired her from afar. The
poem, "Hi, Sooky, Ho, Sooky", existing only in Stem's cryptic holograph, but
clearly composed in Sarah's inimitable style became the opening duet in the
great symphony.
(MUSIC SEGUES TO:)
MUSIC I:23 "HI, SOOKY, HO, SOOKY"
STEM:
OH, I HEARD YOUR VOICE AT DAYBREAK,
CALLING LOUD AND SWEET AND CLEAR;
I WAS HIDING IN THE TURNIPS
WITH A CRICKET IN MY EAR;
A MILLER-MOTH IN ONE EAR,

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AND A CRICKET IN THE OTHER,
BUT I HEARD YOUR DEAR VOICE CALLING
TO THE PIGLETS AND THEIR MOTHER;
HEARD YOUR OWN VOICE RISING, FALLING,
LOUD AND LONG, AND SHARP AND SHRILL,
CALLING....
MATHILDA: SOOKY, SOOKY, SOOOOOOKY!
STEM:
BOTH:
STEM:
TO THE PIGLETS ON THE HILL.
HI, SOOKY, HO, SOOKY,
COME AND GET YOUR SWILL!
OH, I'VE HID AMONG THE TURNIPS
AND I'VE HID BETWEEN THE STOOKS,
WITH BARLEY BARBS ALL DOWN MY BACK,
AND BEETLES IN MY BOOTS;
BUT I'VE SEEN YOU IN THE DWINDLING,
AND I'VE SEEN YOU IN THE RAIN,
WITH AN ARMFUL FULL OF KINDLING,
WHEN YOU FELL AND ROSE AGAIN;
I'VE SEEN YOU PLODDING THROUGH THE DUST
AND PLUGGING THROUGH THE WET,
AND AT NIGHT AGAINST THE WINDOW-BLIND,
I'VE SEEN YOUR SILHOUETTE;
BUT...
MATHILDA: SOOKY, SOOKY, SOOOOOOKY!
STEM:
BOTH:
STEM:
I NEVER CAN FORGET.
HI, SOOKY, HO SOOKY,
COME AND GET YOUR PEP!
AND OH, I THINK I'LL HIDE AGAIN
FOR JUST A SIGHT OF YOU,
AND HEAR YOUR OWN SWEET VOICE AGAIN
CALL...SOOKY, SOOKY, SOOOOOO!
COMPANY:: HI, SOOKY, HO, SOOKY,
COME AND GET THE STEW, SOOKY,
COME AND GET YOUR GOO, SOOKY,
SOOKY, SOOKY, SOOOOOOOO!

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HIEBERT: The couple soon made their romance public when Stem invited
Mathilda to a dance at the Willows School. Their enthusiasm is captured in
Sarah's rousing poem, "The Square Dance".
MUSIC I:21 "SQUARE DANCE"
SARAH:
HIEBERT:
SARAH:
HIEBERT:
SARAH:
HIEBERT:
SARAH:
HIEBERT:
SING HO, FOR THE DANCE,
TO SHUFFLE AND PRANCE,
SING "LADIES, DO-SI-DO!"
AND FIDDLES ENGAGE,
WITH "BIRD-IN-THE-CAGE,"
SING "ELEBEN-LEFT!" -- SING HO!
GIVE ME THE SQUARE
WHEN HARMONICAS BLARE,
AND THE LADIES ARE SET FOR THE SWING --
AND SQUIFFY MALARTY
HAS MADE UP THE PARTY,
WITH A HANDKERCHIEF TIED TO HIS WING:
SWING OLGA, SWING LENA,
SWING KATE AND KATRINA,
SWING GUDRUN, AND BJORG AND GERTRUDE.
SWING HEAVY, SWING HEARTY.
SWING SQUIFFY MALARTY,
THE LIFE OF THE PARTY -- AND STEWED.
GIVE ME THE DANCE,
WHERE THE GIRLS TAKE A CHANCE,
WITH SEAM AND WITH BUTTON AND STRING,
AND SWING THEM UP HIGHER,
BEFORE THEY RETIRE --
SING HO, HEIGH-HO, FOR THE SWING;
SING HO, FOR THE SWIRLS,
AND THE BREATHLESS GIRLS,
WITH THE SWIMMING DELIGHT IN THEIR EYES --
COME SMALLER OR TALLER,
TAKE OFF THE COLLAR --
SING HO, FOR THE EXERCISE.
MATHILDA: SWING DAISY, SWING BETTY,

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STEM:
SARAH:
SWING MAISIE AND LETTY,
SWING MIRABEL, MARGIE AND JOY.
MATHILDA: SWING MRS. MCGINTY,
STEM:
SARAH:
ALL:
SIX FEET AND SQUINTY,
TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY -- AND COY.
SING HO, FOR THE DANCE,
TO SHUFFLE AND PRANCE,
SING "LADIES, DO-SI-DO!"
AND FIDDLES ENGAGE,
WITH "BIRD-IN-THE-CAGE,"
SING "ELEBEN-LEFT!"
SING HO!
HIEBERT: In "The Proposal," Sarah's next creation, we sense a cautious joy
at the approaching nuptials. Stem appears here as the "hired man", not to be
confused with the departed Ole.
MUSIC I:25 "PROPOSAL"
SARAH:
STEM:
SARAH:
MATHIDA:
SARAH:
THE HIRED MAN TO THE MAIDEN SPOKE:
OH, MARRY ME TOMORROW,
WE'LL FILL THE HEATER UP WITH COKE,
KETTLE, BEANS, AND BACON BORROW,
MAKE A TABLE, BUILD A BED --
WHY SO HAPPY WHEN WE'RE WED
HAPPY, HAPPY, WHILE WE CAN,"
TO THE MAID THE HIRED MAN.
"OH NOT SO FAST,"
THE MAID REPLIED.
MATHILDA: "IN THIS I AM IMMUTABLE.
I FEAR YOUR LOVE WOULD WEAKEN,
THOUGH YOUR ARDOUR'S INDISPUTABLE;
LOVE MAY WANE AND LOVE MAY WAX,
MINE CAN ONLY THRIVE ON FACTS.
WORK A YEAR AND WE SHALL SEE,"

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SARAH:
CRIED THE MAIDEN MODESTLY.
HIEBERT: The path of true love was already beginning to deviate. There was
a sudden coyness in the usually enthusiastic Mathilda Schwantzhacker.
MUSIC I:26 "MATHILDA 3" (very short)
HIEBERT: After a long winter of silence, spring brought forth a new movement
in Sarah’s great classic of courtship. Mathilda was assembling her trousseau
and had just ordered a wedding gown from the Eaton's catalogue.
MUSIC I:27 "THE WEDDING DRESS"
MATHILDA: ON PAGE TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY-THREE,
OH, THERE'S THE VERY DRESS FOR ME,
THE PRICE IS RIGHT,
SARAH:
THE SIZE IS TIGHT,
MATHILDA: THE COLOUR RED, AND GREEN, AND WHITE,
AND I'LL BE CHICK, I'LL BE PETITE,
OH, THAT'S THE DRESS FOR ME!
THEY SAY THAT MAN WANTS LITTLE HERE,
NOR WANTS THAT LITTLE LONG -- NOR DEAR,
AND SO I SAY
ON WEDDING DAY
A DRESS THAT'S SHORT, AND CUTE, AND GAY,
AND LIGHT ENOUGH FOR THE BREEZE TO PLAY,
AND A SPECIAL PRICE -
SARAH:
"TO CLEAR."
THOUGH AFTER WEDDING DAY WE FIND
IT'S SHORT IN FRONT AND LONG BEHIND,
AND WINDS ON HEATH
GET UNDERNEATH,
AND RATTLE BONES, AND RIBS, AND TEETH,
FOR WEDDING DAY WITH WEDDING WREATH
I WANT TO LOOK REFINED.
HIEBERT: After several postponements for this modern day Heloise and
Abelard, the knot was eventually tied, apparently just in time for "Lullaby."
MUSIC I:28 "LULLABY"

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SARAH:
SLEEP, MY DARLING, SLEEP AWAY,
DADDY'S GONE TO TOWN WITH HAY,
AND AT FOUR O'CLOCK WILL COME
THE MAN WHO SELLS ALUMINUM;
MOTHER'S SOLD ON KITCHEN WARE,
SLEEP, SHE WANTS TO DO HER HAIR.
THOUGH YOU'RE FAR TOO YOUNG FOR TELLING,
MOTHER DOESN'T WANT YOU YELLING
WHEN THE SALES MAN COMES -- SO YOU
SLEEP TILL FIVE OR QUARTER TO.
(HIEBERT AND MATHILDA HUM ALONG)
SARAH:
BABY:
SLEEP, MY PRECIOUS, CLOSE YOUR EYES,
MOTHER'S SOLD ON PLATES FOR PIES,
AND TOMORROW --
WAAAAH!
SARAH: GO TO SLEEP --
DADDY GOES TO TOWN WITH SHEEP,
BETTER COUNT THEM WHILE YOU'RE ABLE,
WHEN THEY'RE GONE THEY'LL LOCK THE STABLE,
SO WE'LL COUNT THEM, YOU AND ME,
FOUR O'CLOCK COMES AFTER THREE.
COUNT THE HOURS, COUNT THE SHEEP.
HMS:
SLEEP, YOU LITTLE NUISANCE, SLEEP.
HIEBERT: More than their personal life, however, it was their professional life
as farmers that Sarah vowed to celebrate.
MUSIC II:2
SARAH:
"SONG TO THE FOUR SEASONS"
SPRING IS HERE, THE BREEZES BLOWING,
FOUR INCHES OF TOP-SOIL GOING, GOING;
FARM DUCKS ROLLING ACROSS THE PRAIRIE;
SPRING IS HERE -- NOW NICE AND AIRY!
MATHILDA: SUMMER HAS COME,
THE HOPPERS ARE BACK, AHHH!
SUMMER HAS COME,
AND THE HOPPERS ARE BACK.
MMM, OH THE SUN SHINES BRIGHT,
AND THE FIELDS SHINE BLACK.
CLOUDLETS GATHER,

18
IT LOOKS LIKE RAIN -- M-HM --
WELL THOSE CLOUDLETS GATHER
AND IT LOOKS LIKE RAIN.
OH, THE PATTER OF HAIL
ON THE WINDOW PANE!
SARAH: BOUNTEOUS HARVEST, WE'LL SELL AT COST --
STEM:
SARAH:
STEM:
TOMORROW WE'LL HAVE AN EARLY FROST;
GLORIOUS AUTUMN, RED WITH RUST;
WE'LL LIVE ON THE GENERAL STORE ON TRUST.
HIEBERT & SARAH: A LONG, QUIET WINTER WITH PLENTY OF SNOW,
AND PLENTY OF BARLEY; IT'S EIGHTY BELOW,
BARLEY IN THE HEATER, SALT PORK IN THE PANTRY,
HOW NICE THAT YOU NEVER FEEL COLD IN THIS CANTRY!
HIEBERT: In such rhymes -- "country" rhyming with "pantry" -- Sarah reveals
her father's American heritage from the old south.
SARAH:
Yeah, South Dakota.
HIEBERT: Thus concludes the great symphony. Sarah now prepared to move
in new directions, just as the Grizzlykicks moved in theirs. For now William
Greenglow, the famous educationist, entered her rural idyll and introduced Sarah
to the science of Geology.
(GREENGLOW ENTERS WITH GREAT ENTHUSIASM.)
GREENGLOW: I am your new instructor of science, phys ed and English. A
graduate of St. Midget's College, Manitoba.
HIEBERT: Manitoba claimed him as a native son -- but has also disclaimed
him. Owing to the fact that his library fines were never paid, Greenglow's
academic record is not known to scholarship.
GREENGLOW: I obtained a total of ten and a half units, fourteen credits, eleven
and five-sixteenths pundits, during the first term of the second half of the first
division. Transferring three pundits from the diploma course to the degree
course of the second division, gives me a total of twenty-three half-credits, and
entitles me to a degree at any university as Jack of Arts.
(MUSIC ENDS.)

19
SARAH (SIGHS): William Greenglow, J.A.
HIEBERT:
Greenglow's pedagogy was the essence of simplicity.
SARAH: He kept us after school because we could never get through the
substrata. It was hard with only one textbook.
MATHILDA: We were drilled.
SARAH:
But never bored.
MATHILDA: And a good time was had by all.
HIEBERT: The effect of Greenglow's teaching on Sarah's geo-literary poetic
output was nothing less than volcanic. Greenglow had been prospecting for oil
as a field geologist for the Millenium Exploration Company. It was a summer job,
and he recruited Sarah.
(PROJECTOR OF GREENGLOW AND SARAH PROSPECTING.)
SARAH: The first day was a complete bust. William wanted to dig behind
Dad's barn where he'd found ground seepage near the old threshing machine.
But Dad told us to drill where we might hit water. Dad was always so
crustaceous.
MUSIC II:4
"GUSHER CHORDS"
(FIRST CHORD -- SUSTAIN)
HIEBERT: They sank three wells with Jacob's old post-hole auger. The first
shaft struck a placer deposit of harrow teeth at the three foot level ... (PIANO
BUMPS) not rich enough to warrant further excavation.
(SECOND CHORD -- SUSTAIN LONGER)
SARAH:
HIEBERT:
In the second shaft we hit the Pre-Cambrian at fifteen feet.
Hopes ran high!
GREENGLOW:
In the Pre-Cambrian, oil deposits might be found.
SARAH:
Anything can happen in the Pre-Cambrian.
GREENGLOW:
bolognium!
If not oil then Beryllium. And if not beryllium, then

20
SARAH: Let me poke it with my stick!
(PIANO GOES "BUMP" AGAIN)
SARAH:
HIEBERT:
Rats. The Pre-Cambrian is just a big boulder!
The second shaft was abandoned, and work began on the third.
(THIRD CHORD)
SARAH: I was in charge of digging, though William was the official field
geologist.
(PIANO SOUNDS A BASS NOTE THAT SUSTAINS AS LONG AS POSSIBLE)
GREENGLOW: I say we go straight down to the Upper Silurian. Then we
can either circumvent the formation or go around it.
MATHILDA:
I vote for that.
SARAH (CHECKING THE BOOK): But the syncline in the Upper Silurian is
actually the back of the anticline between the Preluvian and the Lower Galician.
If we go by the book, we have to move a good forty rods further west!
MATHILDA:
I vote for William.
HIEBERT: But Sarah prevailed. They moved to the gopher meadow and
began digging. On the third day, a gusher blew in at the forty-five foot mark, just
as Sarah had predicted.
(PIANO DOES A FANFARE)
SARAH:
It wasn't a gusher so much as a kinda trickle.
HIEBERT: But in Up From The Magma the thirteenth trilobite gets soaked and
drenched with oil when the magma blows!
SARAH: Yeah, then she catches the flu and dies. It's all poetic
licentiousness. That's different than the real thing.
HIEBERT: Well, "gusher" may have been hyperbole. And though its high
alkaline content made it useless for livestock, Jacob Binks was determined to
find a use for it.
SARAH: Dad decided to channel it into a tank and make a batch of his
father’s famed tonic of potassium bitters. So that worked out.

21
GREENGLOW: The curative power of Jacob Binks’ medicine can be
variously described as retroactive, and radioactive.
SARAH:
Active, anyways.
HIEBERT: Unfortunately, Mr. Greenglow disappeared from the community
shortly after (GREENGLOW GROANS FROM OFFSTAGE), his term of duty
incomplete. In addition to his disappearance, 1930, alas, also saw the death of
Sarah’s faithful canine, Rover.
MUSIC II:8
SARAH:
"ROVER"
I HAD A DOG WHO DANCED AND SPUN,
WHO SPUN AND DANCED WHEN HE WAS YOUNG,
AND WHEN HE BREATHED HE WHISTLED,
FOR HIS HEART WAS FULL OF FUN.
BUT HIS BREATH WAS COLOURED ASH-GREY,
FOR HE HAD AN ASH-GREY LUNG:
DEATH STRUCK HIM DOWN IN THE AFTERNOON;
HENCEFORTH MY HEART IS FILLED WITH GLOOM.
WHEN ON THAT DAY THE LAST BARK RINGS
TO CALL THE DOG-LIKE THRONG,
ROVER SHALL RISE AND DON HIS WINGS,
AND RAISE HIS VOICE IN SONG;
HE'LL RAISE HIS VOICE IN SONG AND SING,
IN ECSTASY, OF DOG-LIKE THINGS.
ROVER:
SARAH:
ROVER:
OWOOOOWOOOOWOOOO...
AND WEAVING PATTERNS WITH THEIR TAILS,
THE JOYOUS DOG-LIKE HOSTS,
WILL LEAD HIM THROUGH CELESTIAL VALES,
AND MILES AND MILES OF POSTS,
TO MEADOWS FULL OF GOPHER HOLES,
WHICH HE CAN SNIFF AND DIG FOR MOLES.
OWOOOOWOOOOWOOOO...
SARAH (with everyone else on "OWOOO"):
THEN SHALL I SHOUT
AND THROW A STICK,
AND BOUNCE HIS BALL
AND HIDE HIS BONE, OR STOP
AND HELP HIM FIND HIS TICK,
AND CALL HIM TO HIS HOME;

22
HIS HOME WHERE HE CAN TAKE HIS EASE,
IN SUNNY SPOTS AND SCRATCH HIS FLEAS.
AND I SHALL TAKE HIM BY THE HAND,
AND FEED HIM MUSH, AND PULL HIS EARS,
AND HE WILL GRIN, AND UNDERSTAND,
AND LICK AWAY THESE TEARS.
ON THAT GREAT DAY OF THE FINAL BARK,
ROVER (AS USUAL) WILL BEAT THE LARK.
ALL:
OWOOOOWOOOOWOOOO!
HIEBERT: Despite these desperate days and her growing fame in print, Sarah
remained a simple, unspoiled country girl. Had she never left the farm, her poetry
would not have reached the heights of passion for which it later became famous.
Enter: Henry Welkin!
(PROJECTOR SHOWS HENRY WELKIN, FLASHILY DRESSED. HE IS
A SALESMAN WITH A FANCY SHIRT AND BOW TIE.)
SARAH:
Oh! But you promised we wouldn’t…
HIEBERT: But under his mentorship, you first became immersed in the world
of high culture! Don’t you remember your initial encounter
SARAH: Y’er darn tootin’ I do. I first seen Hank at the Willows General
Store, where I was picking up a can of snoose for Dad.
(WELKIN CRUISES IN.)
HIEBERT: As the handsome figure of Henry Welkin crossed the street from
Charlie Wong's, she sensed a quickening of the spirit.
SARAH:
HIEBERT:
WELKIN:
HIEBERT:
Already I could feel a pome coming on!
Welkin didn't wait for an introduction.
Well -- hello, Babe! You must be from the countryside!
Conventional words! But Sarah's soul leapt like a startled deer!
SARAH: He drove me home, and before the sun went down, he sold Dad a
new tooth-harrow.

23
HIEBERT: To Sarah's innocent eyes, Welkin appeared a glamorous figure,
with all the charm of the worldly traveler. Before she left with him for the Big City,
Sarah wrote, "Me and My Love and Me"...
MUSIC II:9
HIEBERT:
SARAH:
"ME AND MY LOVE AND ME"
... capturing her emotional turmoil.
OVER THE MOOR
AT DUSK THERE FLED
THE DISMAL CLOUDS, AND WE,
FACING THE RAIN,
WITH MIGHT AND MAIN,
ME AND MY LOVE AND ME.
THE SEA-GULL SCREAMED,
THE REEDS WERE BENT,
BUT HAND-IN-HAND THE THREE,
WE HURRIED ON --
AGAINST THE WIND,
ME AND MY LOVE AND ME.
HIEBERT: From Willows to Regina, the Athens of Saskatchewan, is an
enormous step. Sarah was overwhelmed. How fortunate that Henry Welkin
stood at her side, showing her the real Regina behind the glamour.
SARAH:
We rode back and forth on the street railway a dozen times!
WELKIN: Hey, let’s go to the Mountie Museum! I'll show you the rope that
hung Louis Riel!
SARAH: We went to the Wascana bird sanctuary and the public library and
together studied the birds and the books.
WELKIN:
building!
Hey! Why don’t we check out the geology behind the Legislative
HIEBERT: Henry Welkin was eager that his young protegee drink life to the
fullest, but he may have erred in showing her too much too soon.
WELKIN (WITH A BIG EXHALATION OF POST-COITAL CIGARETTE SMOKE):
Ahhhh! That was great! Let’s take a promenade around Wascana Lake.
SARAH:
That miserable little puddle I could spit across it!
MUSIC II:11 "MISERABLE LITTLE PUDDLE" (underscore)

24
HIEBERT: This was not the old Sarah, responding to the eighth wonder of the
world! Months later, Sarah wrote that Henry Welkin embarked upon a writing
career of his own and took to the pen.
SARAH:
No, no. He got took to the pen! For some cheques he wrote.
HIEBERT: There followed a period of silence, which Professor H.P. Marrowfat
calls the Chasm of Gloom, marking a division between the two major periods of
Sarah’s work, periods we call the Pre-Regina, and Post-Regina, or simply, P.R.
and P.R., respectively.
SARAH:
My Darkest Hour. (SHE DRINKS) I couldn't write a dot.
HIEBERT: When she finally broke her silence two years later, it was with the
poem "High on a Cliff," where her tortured images find relief in divine justice.
SARAH:
HIGH ON A CLIFF OF JASPER AND QUARTZ,
I SATE AT NOON AND LOOKED UPON THE SEA,
AND GAZED WITH LEADEN EYES UPON MY LOVE,
DRIFTING BEYOND THIS SEEMING WORLD AND ME,
MY LOVE, IN PINCHBACK COAT AND NEW PLUG HAT,
DRIFTING UPON AN AMBER GLOWING SEA;
AND GLOWING TOO, IN THE NOONDAY SUN,
THREE FOUNTAIN PENS, WHERE THE RIPPLES RUN,
A TRICK CIGARETTE CASE AND A PACKAGE OF GUM;
WITH LEADEN EYES I WATCHED MY LOVE DRIFT BY,
AND WATCHED THE RIPPLES BLENDING WITH THE SKY.
HIEBERT: In her next Post-Regina publication, she managed to shake off her
gloom and inspire a whole new generation of Saskatchewhinians.
(MUSIC SEGUES TO:)
MUSIC II:17 "DESPOND NOT"
HIEBERT:
SARAH:
... "Despond Not."
DESPOND NOT, THOUGH TIMES BE BALE,
AND BALEFUL BE,
THOUGH WINDS BLOW STOUT, A HURRICALE,
WHAT'S THAT, WHAT'S THAT TO YOU AND ME
DESPOND NOT, THOUGH FRENZIED FEAR,

25
AND PALE-LIKE HUE,
MAY WHISPER PANIC IN THE EAR,
WHAT'S THAT, WHAT'S THAT TO ME AND YOU
DESPOND NOT, FOR SHAME SUCH SPEAK,
ALOFT! ALOFT!
TUT! WHISTLE LOW, WITH PEAKERED BEAK,
SOFT, SOFT!
DESPOND NOT!
DESPOND NOT!
DESPOND NOT!
HIEBERT: The reception to this masterpiece in 1935 out-ranked even her
earlier hit, "Ode to Spring."Despond not!" Sarah Binks cried.
OTHERS:
HIEBERT:
"Despond not!"
the people chorused back.
(THE OTHERS ENCOURAGE THE AUDIENCE TO REPEAT THE
CRY “DESPOND NOT”)
HIEBERT:
It must have been uplifting.
SARAH: Sure it was. The Honourable Augustus E. Windheaver even quoted
me in an election speech.
WINDHEAVER: Despond not! I quote you the words of your own
great poetess, than whom there is no greater in this great Province of which I
have the honour to be Minister of Foreign Affairs and Pest Control. Despond
not! Come drought, come rust, come high tariff and high freight rates and high
jinks, I say to you, as I have already said to the electors of Quagmire and Pelvis,
that a Province that can produce a poetess like Sarah (SEARCHES FOR HER
NAME)… Bonks… under the government we had four years ago, full of graft and
incompetence and wasting the taxpayers' money, and what about the roads I
want to say -- that a Province that can produce such a poetess may be down --
but is never out!
HIEBERT:
How encouraging!
SARAH: Well I was getting better-known, but I still hadn't earned a dime
from my writing. That's when I decided to enter the McCohen and Meyers
Livestock Conditioner poem contest. With three labels from McCohen and
Meyers Stock Conditioner you could send in as many poems as you wanted as

26
long as they were about animals. I'd already published "Calf", and "The Cursèd
Duck", so I just sat down and wrote "Pigs".
MUSIC II:19 "PIGS"
SARAH:
THE MAN WHO RAISES PIGS FOR CASH
MAY LEAP FOR JOY TO GIVE THEM MASH,
AND LAUGH ALOUD TO MEDITATE
THE LIVER SAUSAGE ON HIS PLATE,
TRANSFORM THE BARLEY AND THE BEAN
TO STRIPS OF FAT AND STRIPS OF LEAN,
AND SEE ALL THINGS, HIS BARNS AND YARD
AND WIFE AND CHILD IN TERMS OF LARD.
BUT SUCH A MAN WITHOUT HIS WILL,
MUST PAY THE PRICE IN MORE THAN SWILL,
HIS MIND MAY DWELL ON PIG IN DEATH,
BUT HIS EYES ARE CROSSED FROM HOLDING BREATH,
AND HE WHO FOLLOWS WHERE HE GOES,
MUST WEAR A CLOTHES-PIN ON HIS NOSE:
OF ALL THE FARMER'S BIRD AND BEAST,
I THINK I LIKE THE PIG THE LEAST.
HIEBERT: How ironic that Sarah's literary triumph resounded in the
celebration of the lowly hog. First prize and her controversial publication in
Swine and Kine!
SARAH:
It was a real crackerjack pome.
MUSIC II:20 "McCOHEN MUSIC" (underscore)
(PROJECTOR SHOWS MCCOHEN)
HIEBERT: But the critics were disgruntled. Denying any peculiar penchant for
pigs in his memoirs, Proceedings of the Saskatchewan Bankruptcy Commission,
Abraham McCohen recalled the contròversy...
MCCOHEN: I was the judge. Hersch Meyers counted the labels. We realized
right away this Dinks kid was onto something, so I sez to my partner, I sez, this
girl is going to be in show biz and we better keep an eye on her, there might be a
percentage in it. So instead of the calendar of famous breeding sows we
generally handed out, we sent her a big horse thermometer. Sure, it cost a bit
more but let's face it, she was stirring up attention.

27
SARAH: Inspired by the prize, I decided to write my masterwork, Up From
the Magma. It wasn’t wrote in a day. It took from then till the spring thaw and it
drug up my past, but it was worth every slogging verse.
HIEBERT: That winter, Sarah was happy, profoundly happy for the first time.
The chores were light, the evenings long and productive.
SARAH: And I took the temperature of Dad's horses with my new
thermometer every day.
HIEBERT: It is interesting to speculate on the heights Sarah might have
achieved had Death not reached out with his unlikely instrument of fate. Alas --
the horse thermometer. The gods of Greek tragedy must have chuckled
ironically when that fateful rod, the symbol of Sarah's success, appeared in her
life just as …
MUSIC II:22 "DEATH SCENE"
HIEBERT: …an epidemic of hives swept the Prairies. Sarah was laid low with
only her horse thermometer as her guide. She was chewing on a Scotch mint,
and bearing down at the moment she was taking her temperature, her teeth
cracked the thermometer and she swallowed a tablespoon of mercury. Mercury
poisoning is a dreadful death, swift and sure, as dramatic as the asp and the
hemlock. It overtook Sarah at the height of her powers, many years away from
the senility which awaits famous poets. Some day, from Saskatchewan's fertile
soil, another bard will spring. Meanwhile…
(HIEBERT TAKES SARAH'S HAND.)
MUSIX II:24 “THE FINEST FLOWER”.
HIEBERT:
SARAH:
THE FINEST FLOWER I HAVE KNOWN,
THE RAREST BLOSSOM I HAVE MET,
HAS GONE TO SEED, HER BEAUTY FLOWN,
HER DAY IS DONE, HER SUN IS SET.
THIS MAKES ME SCRATCH MYSELF AND ASK,
“WHEN SHALL MY POWERS FADE”
IT PUTS ME SEVERELY TO THE TASK,
TO FACE THIS FACT UNDISMAYED.
HIEBERT: A year after her tragic passing, Sarah’s poem “Ode to Spring” was
awarded the Wheat Pool Medal -- posthumously -- and Sarah was acclaimed the
Poet's Poetess. And now – bidding farewell to the Sweet Songstress of
Saskatchewan -- we conclude this assembly of the Sarah Binks Memorial
Society with her great classic, “Ode to Spring.”

28
SARAH:
ALL:
'TIS NOT FOR LONG THE BIRD SHALL CREEP
BENEATH A PILE OF MOULDY STRAW;
EFTSOONS, NOT LONG THE CHILL WINDS SWEEP,
AND POWDERED SNOW-BANKS FOUR FEET DEEP,
PILE UP, PILE UP, IN ROUNDISH HEAP,
PILE UP, PILE UP, IN ROUNDISH HEAP:
FOR SPRING IS COMING WITH ITS MIRTH,
AND BREEZY BREATH OF BALMY WARMTH,
AND BURBANK, BOBOLINK, AND SNEARTH
SHALL BANISH WINTER'S CHILL AND DEARTH,
AND LUSCIOUS JOY SHALL FILL THE EARTH,
AND LUSCIOUS JOY SHALL FILL THE EARTH.
(BLACKOUT.)