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! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LIFE [AND DEATH] by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD ON THE TOMBS IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY by FRANCIS BEAUMONT TWO WITCHES: 2. THE PAUPER WITCH OF GRAFTON by ROBERT FROST TRANSFORMATIONS by THOMAS HARDY S. MATTHIAS by JOSEPH BEAUMONT A NEW PILGRIMAGE: 18 by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT BEING A MOTHER by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING ON SEEING MISS FONTENELLE IN A FAVOURITE CHARACTER by ROBERT BURNS |