"Little Isaac mine was born
on the same day as our king
he could fit into a quarters mug",
his mother used to sing
He was raised in the apple orchards
out on Woolthorpe's countryside
He frightened all the locals
with his highflying kites
who soared among the seagulls
in the flash and thunderin' night
Enrolled at the university
by the time Cromwell had been lynched
turmoil, plague and frolicking
and restoration of the monarchy
"nanana
nanana
nanananananana
nananana na na na na na"
undergraduates would sing
"oh waitress of our cheapside inn
thou hast beauty yet to unfold
thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels
thy neck with chains of gold
nanana
nanana"
Pious Isaac stayed in his room
to do alchemy all day
a dedicated life to
chastity and prayer
yet Rome was the whore of Babylon
and the pope the antichrist himself
But the motions of the planets
they kept whirling in his head
the riddle of ellipses
solved at Halley's dare
He stood on the shoulders of giants
and saw new horizons rise
while the rest just sat preoccupied
or squinting with their eyes
nanana
nanana
He never sang a song
and he never saw the sea
yes he died a gruesome virgin
who never saw the sea
