Page:In Other Words (1912).djvu/126

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In Other Words

III
Chris’mus am a-comin’,
Hear, believers, hear,
Chris’mus come to Geo’gy
Only wunst a year.

(Stanzas IV to CLI supplied on demand.)


(As Martin Farquhar Tupper might have obscured it.)

Now this is an indisputable fact,
And that is one which no one can dispute;
As true as that a diplomat needs tact,
As true as that an apple is a fruit,
None can deny what I have said; What I
Have said, I say, nobody can deny.

And if none can gainsay what I have said,
Then that which I have said none can gainsay,
A man who’s passed away is known as dead;
Dead is a person who has passed away.
But this is not what I began to sing;
What I began to say is not this thing.

Now this is what I hold as solemn truth,
And solemn truth is that which is not gay.
A man of sixty years is not a youth,
Nor are black tresses those completely gray.
But this is clear as glass, as glass is clear:
The day of Christmas comes but once a year.

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