Get every quote explanation for How Many Miles to Babylon? Plus so much more...

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How many miles to Babylon?

A strange thought for such a moment.

Four score and ten, sir.

It was the only thing in my mind. The strange bumpy rhyme that I hadn’t heard for years.

Will I get there by candlelight?

The orange leaves from the chestnut trees danced in front of us all the way down the avenue.

Yes and back again, sir.

Explanation and Analysis:

As Alec is being driven to the train station on his way to enlist in the British Army at the outbreak of World War I, the nursery rhyme “How Many Miles to Babylon?” is suddenly “the only thing in [his] mind.” The rhyme is a dialogue. The first ...

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Original

Romeo

(aside) She speaks.
O, speak again, bright angel! For thou art
As glorious to this night, being o’er my head,
As is a winged messenger of heaven
Unto the white, upturnèd, wondering eyes
Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him
When he bestrides the lazy-puffing clouds
And sails upon the bosom of the air.

Juliet

O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art though Romeo?
Deny they father and refuse they name.
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.

Modern

Romeo

(to himself) She speaks. Speak again, bright angel! For tonight you are as glorious, there up above me, as a winged messenger of heaven who makes mortals fall onto their backs to gaze up with awestruck eyes as he strides across the lazy clouds and sails through the air.

Juliet

O Romeo, Romeo! Why must you be Romeo? Deny your father and give up your name. Or, if you won’t change your name, just swear your love to me and I’ll give up being a Capulet.

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