The Works of Thomas Hood; Vol. 02 (of 11): Comic and Serious, in Prose and Verse, With All the Original IllustrationsHood, Thomas
General
The Works of Thomas Hood; Vol. 02 (of 11): Comic and Serious, in Prose and Verse, With All the Original Illustrations
Hood, Thomas
English poetry -- 19th century; English wit and humor; Humorous poetry, English
Well, here’s a pretty go! here’s a Gagging Act, if ever there was a
gagging!
But I’m bound the members as silenced us, in doing it had plenty of
magging.
They had better send us all off, they had, to the School for the
Deaf and Dumb,
To unlarn us our mother tongues, and to make signs and be regularly
mum.
But they can’t undo natur--as sure as ever the morning begins to
peep,
Directly I open my eyes, I can’t help calling out Sweep
As natural as the sparrows among the chimbley-pots that say Cheep!
For my own part I find my suppress’d voice very uneasy,
And comparable to nothing but having your tissue stopt when you are
sneezy.
Well, it’s all up with us! tho’ I suppose we mustn’t cry all up.
Here’s a precious merry Christmas, I’m blest if I can earn either
bit or sup!
If crying Sweep, of mornings, is going beyond quietness’s border,
Them as pretends to be fond of silence oughtn’t to cry hear, hear,
and order, order.
I wonder Mr. Sutton, as we’ve sut-on too, don’t sympathise with us
As a Speaker what don’t speak, and that’s exactly our own cus.
God help us if we don’t not cry, how are we to pursue our callings?
I’m sure we’re not half so bad as other businesses with their
bawlings.
For instance, the general postmen, that at six o’clock go about
ringing,
And wake up all the babbies that their mothers have just got to
sleep with singing.
Greens oughtn’t to be cried no more than blacks--to do the unpartial
job,
If they bring in a Sooty Bill, they ought to have brought in a Dusty
Bob.
Is a dustman’s voice more sweet than ourn, when he comes a seeking
arter the cinders,
Instead of a little boy like a blackbird in spring, singing merrily
under your windows?
There’s the omnibus cads as plies in Cheapside, and keeps calling
out Bank and City;
Let his Worship, the Mayor, decide if our call of Sweep is not just
as pretty.
I can’t see why the Jews should be let go about crying Old Close
thro their hooky noses,
And Christian laws should be ten times more hard than the old stone
laws of Moses.
Why isn’t the mouths of the muffin-men compell’d to be equally shut?
Why, because Parliament members eat muffins, but they never eat no
sut.
Next year there won’t be any May-day at all, we shan’t have no heart
to dance,
And Jack in the Green will go in black like mourning for our
mischance;
If we live as long as May, that’s to say, through the hard winter
and pinching weather,
For I don’t see how we’re to earn enough to keep body and soul
together.
I only wish Mr. Wilberforce or some of them that pities the niggers,
Would take a peep down in our cellars, and look at our miserable
starving figures,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account