The Folk Show Treasure Hunt Song #8

Track 8 "Pantisocracy"

Listen Again : https://www.mixcloud.com/brian-player/acoustic-cafe-radio-show-no-164-features-ange-hardy-krista-detor-plus-many-others/

Brian Player Folk and Roots, Acoustic Radio on Blues and Roots Radio

Online live link: http://www.bluesandrootsradio.com

The Team:

Ange Hardy (vocals, guitar & whistle)
Patsy Reid (fiddle)
Lukas Drinkwater (double bass)
Archie Churchill-Moss (diatonic accordion)

The Song:

Pantisocracy is “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 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 in America or Wales!

The Lyrics:

Three sons and daughters girls and men 
Each to marry a courter
Vowed to leave all they had and prepared 
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
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 prepared 
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.

Notes From Coleridge:

“Our society will be of the most polished order... Our females are beautiful amiable and accomplished- and I shall then call Coleridge my brother in the real sense of the word”
- Robert Southey, 1794

“Coleridge objected to Wales and thought it best to find some situation in London till we could prosecute our original plan. He talks of tutorage - a public office - a newspaper one for me. I went to bed in dirty sheets - and tost and turned, cold, weary and heart sick till seven in the morning.”
- Robert Southey to Edith Fricker, 1795