Thursday, June 02, 2016
It Cannot Be Denied
James Kenneth Stephen (1859-1892), "England and America. I. On a Rhine Steamer," Lapsus Calami and Other Verses (Cambridge: Bowes and Bowes, 1909), pp. 83-84:
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Republic of the West,
Enlightened, free, sublime,
Unquestionably best
Production of our time.
The telephone is thine,
And thine the Pullman Car,
The caucus, the divine
Intense electric star.
To thee we likewise owe
The venerable names
Of Edgar Allan Poe,
And Mr. Henry James.
In short it's due to thee,
Thou kind of Western star,
That we have come to be
Precisely what we are.
But every now and then,
It cannot be denied,
You breed a kind of men
Who are not dignified,
Or courteous or refined,
Benevolent or wise,
Or gifted with a mind
Beyond the common size,
Or notable for tact,
Agreeable to me,
Or anything, in fact,
That people ought to be.
