A tall, slight, English gentleman, <br />With an eyeglass to his eye; <br />He mostly says “Good-Bai” to you, <br />When he means to say “Good-bye”; <br />He shakes hands like a ladies’ man, <br />For all the world to see— <br />But they know, in Corners of the World. <br />No ladies’ man is he. <br />A tall, slight English gentleman, <br />Who hates to soil his hands; <br />He takes his mother’s drawing-room <br />To the most outlandish lands; <br />And when, through Hells we dream not of, <br />His battery prevails, <br />He cleans the grime of gunpowder <br />And blue blood from his nails. <br /> <br />He’s what our blokes in Egypt call <br />“A decent kinder cove.” <br />And if the Pyramids should fall? <br />He’d merely say “Bai Jove!” <br />And if the stones should block his path <br />For a twelve-month, or a day, <br />He’d call on Sergeant Whatsisname <br />To clear those things away! <br /> <br />A quiet English gentleman, <br />Who dots the Empire’s rim, <br />Where sweating sons of ebony <br />Would go to Hell for him. <br />And if he chances to get “winged,” <br />Or smashed up rather worse, <br />He’s quite apologetic to <br />The doctor and the nurse. <br /> <br />A silent English gentleman— <br />Though sometimes he says “Haw.” <br />But if a baboon in its cage <br />Appealed to British Law <br />And Justice, to be understood, <br />He’d listen all polite, <br />And do his very best to set <br />The monkey grievance right. <br /> <br />A thoroughbred whose ancestry <br />Goes back to ages dim; <br />Yet no one on his wide estates <br />Need fear to speak to him. <br />Although he never showed a sign <br />Of aught save sympathy, <br />He was the only gentleman <br />That shamed the cad in me.<br /><br />Henry Lawson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-new-john-bull/
