Songs of Education: Geography, G. Chesterton.

Songs of Education: Geography.
by G. K. Chesterton.

The earth is a place on which England is found,
And you find it however you twirl the globe round;
For the spots are all red and the rest are all grey
And that is the meaning of Empire Day.

Gibraltar’s a rock that you see very plain,
And attatched to its base is the district of Spain.
And the island of Malta is marked farther on,
Where some natives were known as the knights of St. John.
Then Cyprus, and east to the Suez Canal,
That was conquered by Dizzy and Rothschild his pal
With the sword of the Lord in the old English way;
And that is the meaning of Empire Day.

Our principal imports come far as Cape Horn;
For necessities, cocoa; for luxuries, corn;
Thus Brahmins are born for the rice-field, and thus,
The Gods made the Greeks to grow currants for us;
Of earth’s other tributes are plenty to shoose,
Tobacco and petrol and Jazzing and Jews:
The jazzing will pass but the Jews they will stay;
And that is the meaning of Empire Day.

Our principal exports, all labeled and packed,
At the ends of the earth are delivered intact:
Our soap or our salmon can travel in tins,
Between the two poles and alike as two pins;
So that Lancashire merchants whenever they like
Can water the beer of a man in Klondike
Or poison the meat of a man in Bombay;
And that is the meaning of Empire Day.

The day of St. George is a musty affair,
Which Russians and Greeks are permitted to share;
The day of Trafalgar is Spanish in name
And the Spaniards refuse to pronounce it the same;
But the Day of the Empire from Canada came
With Morden and Borden and Beaverbrook’s fame
And saintly seraphical souls such as they;
And that is the meaning of Empire Day.