I speak of arms and the man : ?

July 27, 2008 12:35 AM

from where do I know the phrase 'I speak of arms and the man'?

I can't remember...and I want it to be my next tattoo.

posted by flowerofhighrank to Society & Culture (8 answers total)

"I speak [sing] of arms and the man" - from Virgil's Aeneid

Also Arms and the Man, a comedy by George Bernard Shaw.
posted by amyms at 12:43 AM on July 27, 2008

Arma virumque cano. 'Arms' here is weapons, not limbs.
posted by ikkyu2 at 12:53 AM on July 27, 2008

I know it from the very first Google hit for "arms and the man."
posted by Pater Aletheias at 1:21 AM on July 27, 2008 [1 favorite]

I know it from the very first Google hit for "arms and the man." -- Pater Aletheias

Eponycute.

Yeah, you probably had to read or perform the Shaw play in school. I know I did.
posted by rokusan at 1:35 AM on July 27, 2008

Warren Zevon also used it as the lead-in to Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner.
posted by adamrice at 5:56 AM on July 27, 2008

Spot on, adamrice. Whenever I see the phrase, I hear Zevon's voice.
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:29 AM on July 27, 2008

wasnt it " i sing of a one-armed man' by Virgil?
posted by dougiedd at 2:36 PM on July 27, 2008

It's the opening line of Virgil's Aeniad ("Arma virumque cano"), although I suspect Virgil cribbed it from Cicero. There's also a good poem "Arms and the Boy" by the WWI poet Wilfred Owen, clearly inspired by arma virumque cano, although there used in a somewhat different spirit.
posted by bluenausea at 4:12 AM on July 28, 2008