All This Time
Sting · The Soul Cages, 1991
All This Time
In history, it's the geography that stays constant (to some extent) in our lives. As Sting sings about the river he grew up with, he starts with images of the present-day city of Newcastle and its River Tyne. Next, he brings up the subject of his father's death, which then leads him to a discussion about religion. While civilizations like the Romans come and go, the only thing that rarely changes is the River Tyne.
Rome came and went.
The Tyne still flows.
Five questions on the Roman story hiding in the song.
Notes
Sting grew up in Wallsend, a shipbuilding town on the River Tyne in northeast England. The town's name comes from the end of Hadrian's Wall, built by the Romans around AD 122 to mark the northern edge of their empire. The Roman fort of Segedunum stood right where the shipyards would later rise.
In this 1991 song, written after his father's death, Sting looks at the river and sees the long view: the Romans came, built their wall, and left — and the Tyne kept flowing.
Ask your class: what did the Romans leave behind in Britain, and what has stayed the same for two thousand years?