YANKEE DOODLE sent to Town His goods for exhibition; Everybody ran him down, And laugh'd at his position. They thought him all the world behind; A goney, muff, or noodle; Laugh on, good people, -- never mind -- Says quiet Yankee Doodle. Chorus -- Yankee Doodle, keep it up, Yankee Doodle Dandy! Mind the music and the step, And with the girls be handy! Yankee Doodle had a craft, A rather tidy clipper, And he challenged, while they laughed, The Britishers to whip her. Their whole yacht-squadron she outsped, And that on their own water; Of all the lot she went ahead, And they came nowhere arter. O'er Panama there was a scheme Long talked of, to pursue a Short route -- which many thought a dream -- By Lake Nicaragua. John Bull discussed the plan on foot, With slow irresolution, While Yankee Doodle went and put It into execution. A steamer of the Collins line, A Yankee Doodle's notion, Has also quickest cut the brine Across the Atlantic Ocean. And British Agents, no ways slow Her merits to discover, Have been and bought her -- just to tow The Cunard packets over. Your gunsmiths of their skill may crack, But that again don't mention: I guess that Colts' revolvers whack Their very first invention. By Yankee Doodle, too, you're beat Downright in Agriculture, With his machine for reaping wheat, Chawed up as by a vulture, You also fancied, in your pride, Which truly is tarnation, Them British locks of yourn defied The rogues of all creation; But Chubbs' and Bramah's Hobbs has picked, And you must now be viewed all As having been completely licked By glorious Yankee Doodle. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MEMORY by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH REVELRY OF THE DYING by BARTHOLOMEW DOWLING THE LOVE SONG OF J. ALFRED PRUFROCK by THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT MAY (1) by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI YEARS OF THE MODERN by WALT WHITMAN TO MY FIANCEE by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS STANZAS IN THE MEMORY OF EDWARD QUILLINAN, ESQ. by MATTHEW ARNOLD |