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English Roses

by F. Harald Williams [i.e. F. W. O. Ward]

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THE GREAT POWDER MAGAZINE.

Thunder and lightning,
Iron and steel,
Taxes yet tight'ning,
Millions to heel,
Millions for battle,
Millions that rattle
Iron and steel,
Nations in arms,
Death and alarms,
Churches that reel,
Plots' grim pursuits,
Kings like dead fruits'

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Castaway peel,
Demagogue swagger,
Dynamite, dagger,
Cannon and keel,
Tears in a flood,
Iron and blood,
Women who kneel,
Europe's armed camp,
Trumpet and tramp
Corpses might feel,
Pigs at the trough
With never enough,
Iron and steel,
Threats growing louder,
Millions to heel,
Earth all one powder
War magazine,
Cannon and keel,
Murder machine—
Who'll sit upon it,
Fly on a wheel?
Wanted a phrase,
Wanted a sonnet
Run off the reel,
Or a red bonnet,
Or some mad craze,
Iron and steel—
Then for the blaze!