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