To see the world as the world's not. The better for the embittered hour; 60 There was a king reigned in the East: There, when kings will sit to feast, They get their fill before they think With poisoned meat and poisoned drink. He gathered all that springs to birth From the many-venomed earth; First a little, thence to more, He sampled all her killing store; And easy, smiling, seasoned sound, Sate the king when healths went round. They put arsenic in his meat And stared aghast to watch him eat; They poured strychnine in his cup And shook to see him drink it up: They shook, they stared as white's their shirt: Them it was their poison hurt. -I tell the tale that I heard told. LIONEL JOHNSON (1867-1902) OXFORD NIGHTS To Victor Plarr About the august and ancient Square, O rare divinity of Night! Season of undisturbed delight: Glad interspace of day and day! 10 Without, an world of winds at play: Within, I hear what dead friends say. Blow, winds! and round that perfect Dome, 20 Wail as you will, and sweep, and roam: 30 40 Goldsmith, the dearest of them all: wrath; Bramble's pleasant 60 Nor lives there, beneath Oxford towers, RUDYARD KIPLING (1865- > TOMMY 71 I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer, The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no redcoats here." The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die, I outs into the street again, an' to myself sez I: O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy go away"; But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins," when the band begins to play, The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play, O it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins," when the band begins to play. We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational. Don't mess about the cook-room slops but prove it to our face The Widow's uniform is not the soldierman's disgrace. For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!" But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot; An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please; An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -you bet that Tommy sees! FUZZY-WUZZY (Soudan Expeditionary Force) 40 We've fought with many men acrost the seas, An' some of 'em was brave an' some was not: The Paythan an' the Zulu an' Burmese; But the Fuzzy was the finest o' the lot. We never got a ha'porth's change of 'im: 'E squatted in the scrub an' 'ocked our 'orses, 'E cut our sentries up at Suakim, An' 'e played the cat an' banjo with our forces. So 'ere's to you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, at your 'ome in the Sowdan; 9 You're a pore benighted 'eathen but a first-class fightin' man; We gives you your certifikit, an' if you want it signed We'll come an' 'ave a romp with you whenever you're inclined. We took our chanst among the Kyber 'ills, The Boers knocked us silly at a mile, You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, The Burman guv us Irriwaddy chills, an' fires, an' all: An' a Zulu impi dished us up in style: |