Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO MY PAPER, by ALFRED DENNIS GODLEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO MY PAPER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My daily paper! Years ago
Last Line: Thy press!
Alternate Author Name(s): Godley, A. D.
Subject(s): Newspapers; Journalism; Journalists


MY Daily Paper! years ago
You took a fervid interest
In nations by a tyrant foe
Opprest!

Our duty (we were wont to learn)
Was to defy our rival Powers
By doing what was no concern
Of ours.

'Twas yours the Grecian arms to bless,
And Europe's peace thereby to mar --
Forgetting the Bloodguiltiness
Of War;

You bade ourselves arise in might,
And send an army corps or fleet
To vindicate the outraged right
Of Crete;

In short, your sympathies were with
Armenian, Macedonian, Fin --
All persons who were not your kith
Or kin.

How changed the scene! Here's Uncle Paul,
Whose method obviously consorts
With Abdul's own -- whose shifts recall
The Porte's --

Whose acts, in brief, are wholly wrong,
Judged from that Liberal point of view
Which I've associated long
With you, --

Yet, when the hapless Britisher
Is sat upon by Uncle Paul,
Your sympathies it does not stir
At all;

'Tis what an Uitlander is for,
Steeped, as he is, in natural sin;
Not like the virtuous Cretan, or
The Fin;

And Mr. Stead, whose red right arm
Was fain to plunge in Turkish gore,
Would almost sooner die than harm
A Boer!

What smooths the path of Government,
And clears its difficulties? What
Makes Premiers view with calm content
Their lot?

Democracy! in hour of need,
'Tis thou, 'tis thou, whom statesmen bless,
When they are privileged to read
Thy Press!





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