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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=357349" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>A Ballad for Elderly Kids</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=357349" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Now this is the ballad of Jeremy Jones,<br>And likewise of Bobadil Brown,<br>Of the Snooks and the Snaggers and Macs and Malones,<br>And Diggle and Daggle and Down.<br>In fact, 'tis a song of a fatuous throng.<br>Which embraces 'the man in the street,'<br>And the bloke on the 'bus, and a crowd more of us.<br>And a lot of the people we meet.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=357349" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Yes, this is the story of Jack and of Jill,<br>Whose surnames are Snawley or Smith,<br>And of Public Opinion and National Will,<br>And samples of Popular Myth.<br>For Jeremy Jones, as a very small boy,<br> Was encouraged to struggle for pelf,<br>And to strive very hard in his own little yard,<br> But never to think for himself.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=357349" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Then, Hi-diddle-diddle, the cat and the fiddle,<br>Come, sing us a nursery rhyme.<br>For, in spite of our whiskers, we elderly friskers<br>Are kiddes the most of our time.<br>So this is the song of the juvenile throng,<br>And its aunts and its big brother Bill,<br>Its uncles and cousins, and sisters in dozens,<br>Louisa and 'Liza and Lill.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=357349" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Now, Jeremy Jones was exceedingly 'loyal,'<br>And when any procession went by,<br>He'd cheer very loud with the rest of the crowd,<br>Though he honestly couldn't tell why.<br>He was taught that his 'rulers' toiled hard for his sake,<br>And promoted the 'general good';<br>That to meddle with 'customs' was quite a mistake.<br>And Jones didn't see why he should.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=357349" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">To gird at the 'Order of Things as they Are,'<br>He was told, was the act of a fool.<br>He was taught, in effect, to regard with respect<br>Ev'ry' 'Precedent,' 'Practice' and 'Rule.'<br>And if we deserted the 'Usual Plan'<br>He believed that the nation would fall.<br>So Jones became known as a 'right-thinking man,'<br>Which meant that he didn't at all.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=357349" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Oh, Little Miss Muffett, she sat on a tuffet,<br>But fled from a spider in fright;<br>For no one haa told her that if she was bolder,<br>She might have asserted her right.<br>Ho, rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a tub,<br>On a sea of political doubt;<br>And they argue together concerning the weather,<br>But never attempt to get out.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=357349" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">They made him a grocer when Jerry left school,<br>And a very good grocer was he;<br>And a dunce he was not, for he knew quite a lot<br>Of such matters as treacle and tea.<br>But the making of nations, and things so immense,<br>He considered beyond his control.<br>He was busy on week-days at saving his pence,<br>And on Sundays at saving his soul.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=357349" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">But politics Jones did not wholly neglect!<br>He subscribed to a paper, THE SAGE;<br>And every morn, with becoming respect,<br>He scanned its political page.<br>He believed what was said in each leader he read,<br>For a 'right-thinking person' was he.<br>Who was shocked at their vices, who growled of the prices<br>Of Sugar or treacle or tea.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=357349" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Oh, Little Jack Horner sits in a corner,<br>A look of delight in his eye,<br>At the sight of a plum on the end of his thumb,<br>While there's somebody sneaking his pie.<br>Then, ride a cook hoss to Banbury Cross <br>Though the Lord only knows why we do.<br>But there's precedent for it, and those who ignore it<br>We class as an ignorant crew,</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=357349" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">So Jeremy Jones he meanders through life,<br>Behaving as Grandmother bids;<br>And so do his very respectable wife<br>And extremely conventional kids.<br>Their bosses can trust 'em, for habit and custom<br>They've learnt in the regular school;<br>And they call him 'right-thinking,' while privately winking<br>And setting him down as a fool.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=357349" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Convention's his master; he vows that disaster<br>Will swiftly encompass its foes.<br>He thinks Evolution a Labor delusion,<br>And 'Progress' a 'something' that grows.<br>He's one of the many - a credulous zany <br>The leadable, bleedable type <br>Who looks upon 'Time' - instructed by Granny <br>As something that rarely is ripe.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=357349" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Oh, Goosey, goose gander, where do you wander?<br>Only, kind sir, where I'm told;<br>For my master has said I must go where I'm led,<br>And to contradict him would be bold.<br>And Little Bo-peep she lost her sheep.<br>It's the Socialist's fault, she'll insist.<br>But leave her to grieve, for she'll never believe<br>That a Meat Trust could ever exist.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=357349" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Then this is the ballad of elderly kids,<br>Of Jeremy Jones and his kind,<br>Of Bobadil Brown, and Daggle and Down,<br>And the crowd with the juvenile mind.<br>Oh, this is a song of the National Will,<br>Of the Snooks, and the Snaggers, and Smiths,<br>Their aunts and their cousins, and big brother Bill,<br>Convention and Popular Myths.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=357349" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">A sad little song of the fatuous throng,<br>A string of sedate little rhymes,<br>Concerning the crowd who consider it wrong<br>To collide with the 'trend of the times.'<br>A song about Us, who are missing the 'bus,<br>While we trifle and toy with pretence.<br>For we play very hard in our own little yard,<br>But we seldom look over the fence.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=357349" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Then Hi-diddle-diddle, the cat and the fiddle <br>We're never concerned with the cause.<br>Let's giggle and sinf for the Trust and the Ring<br>Are really our old Santa Claus.<br>Effects may surprise us, but Granny'll advise us;<br>We'll never behave as she bids.<br>Ho, grocers and drapres, let's stick to the papers;<br>We're all of us elderly kids.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><a href="http://poems.citatepedia.com/">poem</a> by <strong><a rel="author" href="http://authors.citatepedia.com/by.php?a=Clarence+Michael+James+Stanislaus+Dennis">Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis</a></strong></div>