A New Nursery Rhyme

A New Nursery Rhyme by Tom Maguire

Sing a song of England,
Country of the free,
Sing her teeming millions,
Rulers of the sea;
Sing her trade and commerce,
And her "vales serene",
Isn’t it a dainty dish
To lay before the Queen?

Sing a song of England,
Shuddering with cold,
Doomed to slow starvation
By the gods of gold;
See her famished children
Hunger-marked, and mean,
Isn’t that a dainty dish
To lay before the Queen?

Sing her House of Commons,
Sitting all at ease,
While the ring of coal-lords
Fasten like disease
On the helpless toilers,
Hollow-eyed and lean;
Faith! it is a dainty dish
To lay before the Queen.

Mammon in the counting-house,
Counting out his money,
His Lady in the parlour
Eating bread and honey.
The worker on the highway,
Short of food and clothes -
God bless happy England!
And save her from her foes.

From The Labour Champion, 11 November 1893.