mary_j_59

Which, I think, is pretty cool. If you don't know who the Thunderer is, Dion wrote a song about him. The words were by Phyllis McGinley, and very clever they are, too. (And St. Jerome and the Lion was one of my absolute favorite books when I was a little kid.) So, everyone, do some thundering today, and stay dry while you're at it! McGinley's poem is below; the last two lines seem especially appropriate for us Snape fans. ;)

THE THUNDERER

God's angry man,
His crotchety scholar

Was Saint Jerome, The great name-caller

Who cared not a dime
For the laws of libel
And in his spare time
Translated the Bible.
(St. Jerome, The Thunderer!)

Quick to disparage
All arts but learning,
Jerome liked marriage
Better than burning
But didn't like woman's
Painted cheeks;
Didn't like Romans,
Didn't like Greeks,
Hated Pagans For their Pagan ways,
Yet doted on Cicero all his days.
(St.Jerome, the Thunderer!0

A born reformer, cross and gifted,

He scolded mankind

Sterner than Swift did;

Worked to save

The world from the heathen;

Fled to a cave

For peace to breathe in,

Promptly wherewith

For miles around

He filled the air with

Fury and sound.

In a mighty prose,

For almighty ends,

He thrust at his foes,

Quarreled with his friends,

And served his Master

Though with complaint.

He wasn't a plaster sort of saint.

But he swelled men's minds With a Christian leaven.

It takes all kinds To make a heaven.

(By Phyllis McGinley, from her book Saints Without Tears

I can't find a video, but if you look up "Son of Skip James" on amazon, you can get the tune. )