[Editor: This poem by William Blocksidge (also known as William Baylebridge) was published in Songs o’ the South (1908).]
Father Sans
Up , my lads, and fill your cans;
Drink a health to Father Sans —
He who teaches mankind all things
Worth the knowing, great and small things;
He who teaches full content
With a little, when ’tis sent;
And who best can help us know
Hollow Pomp and empty Show!
Come, my lads, and fill your cans;
For the toast is Father Sans!
Though his face be often long,
He to-day shall be our song —
He who has the power to slay
Fawning pimps who poison day;
He whose company all who keep
Stand for men and not for sheep!
Up, my lads, and fill your cans;
We are friends of Father Sans!
Let us in the liquor steep him —
Later on the purse will keep him —
He who whets our appetite
Till it later knows delight —
Such delight as else had shown
Dullest thing of dull things known!
Come, my lads, and fill your cans;
Fill them full to Father Sans!
Let us show to every dunce
He’s a jolly dog for once!
If we treat him well to-day,
He will come with us away,
And shall teach again the lore
We have learnt so well before.
Source:
William Blocksidge, Songs o’ the South, London: Watts, 1908, pp. 13-14
Editor’s notes:
dunce = someone who is stupid, a fool, an idiot, unintelligent; someone who is a slow learner
pimp = someone who manages and controls prostitutes, as well as soliciting customers for prostitutes (whilst taking a cut of the money they earn); a provider of prostitutes; someone who lives off the earnings of prostitutes (can also refer to: an informer)
sans = (archaic) without (lacking, minus) (from Middle English, via Old French and Latin)
’tis = (archaic) a contraction of “it is”
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