Now listen to me and I'll tell you my views concerning the African war, <br />And the man who upholds any different views, the same is a ritten Pro-Boer! <br />(Though I'm getting a little bit doubtful myself, as it drags on week after week: <br />But it's better not ask any questions at all -- let us silence all doubts with a shriek!) <br />And first let us shriek the unstinted abuse that the Tory Press prefer -- <br />De Wet is a madman, and Steyn is a liar, and Kruger a pitiful cur! <br />(Though I think if Oom Paul -- as old as he is -- were to walk down the Strand with his gun, <br />A lot of these heroes would hide in the sewers or take to their heels and run! <br />For Paul he has fought like a man in his day, but now that he's feeble and weak <br />And tired, and lonely, and old and grey, of course it's quite safe to shriek!) <br /> <br />And next let us join in the bloodthirsty shriek, Hooray for Lord Kitchener's "bag"! <br />For the fireman's torch and the hangman's cord -- they are hung on the English Flag! <br />In the front of our brave old army! Whoop! the farmhouse blazes bright. <br />And the women weep and their children die -- how dare they presume to fight! <br />For none of them dress in a uniform, the same as by rights they ought. <br />They're fighting in rags and in naked feet, like Wallace's Scotchmen fought! <br />(And they clothe themselves from our captured troops -- and they're catching them every week; <br />And they don't hand them -- and the shame is ours, but we cover the shame with a shriek!) <br />And, lastly, we'll shriek the political shriek as we sit in the dark and doubt; <br />Where the Birmingham Judas led us in, and there's no one to lead us out. <br />And Rosebery -- whom we depended upon! Would only the Oracle speak! <br />"You go to the Grocers," says he, "for your laws!" By Heavens! it's time to shriek!<br /><br />Andrew Barton Paterson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/now-listen-to-me-and-i-ll-tell-you-my-views/
