"Godiva's Hymn", "Engineer's Hymn" or "Engineers' Drinking Song" is a traditional drinking song for North American engineers. Versions of it have been associated with the Army Corps of Engineers, as well as MIT, MTU, and various other universities,[1] and is now often performed by the MIT a cappella group The Chorallaries. In many university engineering faculties, military engineering corps and other engineering organizations and societies, Lady Godiva is a school icon or mascot.
Godiva's Hymn is sung either to the tune of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" or "The Son of a Gambolier". Near Christmas, it is a tradition of the Lady Godiva Memorial Bnad [sic] of the University of Toronto to sing Godiva's Hymn to the tune of Good King Wenceslaus.
One Version of the Chorus is as follows:[2]
We are We are We are We are--
We are the engineers--
We can We can We can We can--
Demolish forty beers--
Drink rum Drink rum Drink rum all day[3]--
and come along with us for--
We don't give a damn for any old man--
Who don't give a damn for us--
Four of Godiva's Verses:[2]
Godiva was a lady who through Coventry did ride--
To show to all the villagers her fine and lily-white hide--
The most observant villager, an engineer of course--
Was the only one to notice that Godiva rode a horse--
Professors put demands on us, they say we have to tool,--
But all we want to do is sleep, we hate this fucking school.--
You can bitch or tell us off, even abuse us if you please,--
But we're all set to graduate, and all we need are C's!--
Venus is a statue made entirely of stone,--
There's not a fig leaf on her, she's as naked as a bone.--
On noticing her arms were gone, an Engineer discoursed,--
"The damn thing's busted concrete and it should be reinforced."--
An Engineer once came to class so drunk and very late,--
He stumbled through the lecture hall at an ever-diminishing rate.--
The only things that held him up and kept him on his course,--
Were the boundary condition and the electromotive force.--