Occasional musings, Geistesblitze, photos, drawings etc. by a "resident alien", who has landed on American soil from a far-away planet called "Germany".

Friday, September 7, 2012

National Anthem of Herland

Another parody on occasion of the MOOC I'm currently taking: This is a spoof of a classic of feminist literature, Herland, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (to be sung to the melody of Woody Guthrie’s “This land is your land, this land is my land”):

This land is her land, this land is my land,
Between high mountains we are an island,
A land of gardens, without male wardens.
This land was made for her and she.

A land of mothers, a land of sisters,
We need no brothers, we need no misters.
Parthénogenésis is our thesis.
This land was made for her and she.

If ever men came, we will not blame them.
We’ll keep them locked up, and train and tame them,
To mate with reason, only in season.
This land was made for her and she.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Great parody! Captures the tone of the book perfectly. And can be belted with gusto!

I'm curious: There's a grammatical error at the end of each stanza. Did you do this on purpose?

Kim

Ulrich said...

@Kim: Thx!

As to your question: I'm aware that "she" is incorrect at the end of the stanzas. In fact, the lines read originally "This land was made for her and me." But then I put "she" in, as a joke: Their single-minded focus on women is more important for Herlanders than correct English.

But if incorrect grammar makes you cringe, you have my permission to sing "for her and me."