Departmental Ditties & Barrack Room Ballads by Rudyard Kipling
page 107 of 149 (71%)
page 107 of 149 (71%)
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My soul! I'd sooner lie in jail for murder plain and straight,
Pure crime I'd done with my own hand for money, lust, or hate, Than take a seat in Parliament by fellow-felons cheered, While one of those "not provens" proved me cleared as you are cleared. Cleared--you that "lost" the League accounts--go, guard our honor still, Go, help to make our country's laws that broke God's laws at will-- One hand stuck out behind the back, to signal "strike again"; The other on your dress-shirt front to show your heart is @dane, If black is black or white is white, in black and white it's down, You're only traitors to the Queen and but rebels to the Crown If print is print or words are words, the learned Court perpends: We are not ruled by murderers, only--by their friends. AN IMPERIAL RESCRIPT Now this is the tale of the Council the German Kaiser decreed, To ease the strong of their burden, to help the weak in their need, He sent a word to the peoples, who struggle, and pant, and sweat, That the straw might be counted fairly and the tally of bricks be set. The Lords of Their Hands assembled; from the East and the West they drew-- Baltimore, Lille, and Essen, Brummagem, Clyde, and Crewe. And some were black from the furnace, and some were brown from the soil, And some were blue from the dye-vat; but all were wearied of toil. And the young King said:--"I have found it, the road to the rest ye seek: The strong shall wait for the weary, the hale shall halt for the weak; |
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