Page:The cry for justice - an anthology of the literature of social protest. - (IA cryforjusticea00sinc).pdf/747

"I was raised in the lap of Jingo, sir, till I grew to the height of man,
And a wonderful Literary Gent, I emerged upon Hindostan!. . .

"And rapid as light my glory spread, till thro' cockaigne it flew,
And I grew the joy of the Cockney cliques, and the pet of the Jingo Jew!

"For the Lord my God was a Cockney Gawd, whose voice was a savage yell,
A fust-rate Gawd who dropt, d'ye see, the 'h' in Heaven and Hell!. . .

"Oh I was a real Phenomenon," continued Kiplingson,
"The only genius ever born who was Tory at twenty-one!"

"Alas! and alas!" the good Saint said, a tear in his eye serene,
"A Tory at twenty-one! Good God! At fifty what would you have been?

"There's not a spirit now here in Heaven who wouldn't at twenty-one
Have tried to upset the very Throne, and reform both Sire and Son!

"The saddest sight my eyes have seen, down yonder on earth or here,
Is a brat that talks like a weary man, or a youth with a cynic's leer.