News

Cambridge Residents Slam Council Proposal to Delay Bike Lane Construction

News

‘Gender-Affirming Slay Fest’: Harvard College QSA Hosts Annual Queer Prom

News

‘Not Being Nerds’: Harvard Students Dance to Tinashe at Yardfest

News

Wrongful Death Trial Against CAMHS Employee Over 2015 Student Suicide To Begin Tuesday

News

Cornel West, Harvard Affiliates Call for University to Divest from ‘Israeli Apartheid’ at Rally

"HE IS AN ENGLISHMAN."

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED

I 'VE just come over from abroad,

Been there a year, you know,

And now I find America,

I must say, rather slow.

Of course I took in Italy,

And did the Alps and Rhine;

Things every fellow ought to see,

And really deuced fine.

But then that blasted sight-seeing

Soon gets so devilish tame, -

Old pictures, and that sort of thing,

Are all so much the same.

Besides, this tourist business

Is such a horrid bore.

I stopped in Paris near six months;

Was up at London four.

A rattling place that Paris is;

The women, sir, are fine;

And then, by Jove, I never saw

Such cooking and such wine!

But England after all 's the place

For gentlemen, by gad;

Now here a fellow to succeed

Has got to be a cad.

The fellows of good family there

All have some opening;

They give 'em seats in Parliament,

And all that sort of thing.

Our House and Senate over here

Are all made up, you know,

Of such a deuced scrubby lot,

No decent fellow 'll go.

Then cads all dress so badly there,

And gentlemen so well,

One can distinguish which is which,

Now here, a man can't tell.

I rode a goodish bit out there;

They pretty much all do;

I always used to keep a back,

And thoroughbred or two.

This pounding along Beacon Street

Is rather slowish fun

Beside an outing on The Row,

Or a cross-country run.

And then this early dining here, -

A nasty trick I hate;

Now over there they never dine

Before half-after-eight.

Our girls are pretty, I allow;

They 're clever, and all that,

But after Paris women, - well,

They 're just a trifle flat.

One ought to love one's land, they say;

Well - I 'm no patriot;

I always thought that sort of thing

Was poppycock and rot.

I 'm going out again next spring;

Once there, I shall remain;

And then I hope I never 'll see

This blasted hole again.

J. B.

Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

Tags