Britannia needs no Boulevards, <br />No spaces wide and gay: <br />Her march was through the crooked streets <br />Along the narrow way. <br />Nor looks she where, New York's seduction, <br />The Broadway leadeth to destruction. <br /> <br />Britannia needs no Cafes: <br />If Coffee needs must be, <br />Its place should be the Coffee-house <br />Where Johnson growled for Tea; <br />But who can hear that human mountain <br />Growl for an ice-cream soda-fountain? <br /> <br />She needs no Russian Theatrey <br />Mere Father strangles Mother, <br />In scenes where all the characters <br />And colours kill each other-- <br />Her boast is freedom had by halves, <br />And Britons never shall be Slavs. <br /> <br />But if not hers the Dance of Death, <br />Great Dostoievsky's dance, <br />And if the things most finely French <br />Are better done in France-- <br />Might not Americanisation <br />Be best applied to its own nation? <br /> <br />Ere every shop shall be a store <br />And every Trade a Trust . . . <br />Lo, many men in many lands <br />Know when their cause is just. <br />There will be quite a large attendance <br />When we Declare our Independence.<br /><br />Gilbert Keith Chesterton<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/americanisation/
