"Oh is it the jar of nations,
    The noise of a world run mad,
The fleeing of earth's foundations?"
    Yes, yes; lie quiet, my lad.

"Oh is it my country calling,
    And whom will my country find
To shore up the sky from falling?"
    My business; never you mind.

"Oh is it the newsboys crying
    Lost battle, retreat, despair,
And honour and England dying?"
    Well, fighting cock, what if it were?

The devil this side of the darnels
    Is having a dance with man,
And quarrelsome chaps in charnels
    Must bear it as best they can.