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by (Joseph) Hilaire Belloc (1870 - 1953)

Ballad of Hell and of Mrs Roebeck
Language: English 
I'm going out to dine at Gray's
With Bertie Morden, Charles and Kit,
And Manderly who never pays,
And Jane who wins in spite of it,
And Algernon who won't admit 
The truth about his curious hair
And teeth that very nearly fit:

And Mrs Roebeck will be there.

And then to-morrow someone says
That someone else has made a hit
In one of Mister Twister's plays. 
And off we go to yawn at it;
And when it's petered out we quit
For number 20, Taunton Square,
And smoke, and drink, and dance a bit: 

And Mrs Roebeck will be there. 

 And so through each declining phase
Of emptied effort, jaded wit,
And day by day of London days
Obscurely, more obscurely, lit ;
Until the uncertain shadows flit
Announcing to the shuddering air
A Darkening, and the end of it :

And Mrs Roebeck will be there.

Princes, on their iron thrones they sit,
Impassible to our despair,
The dreadful Guardians of the Pit:

And Mrs Roebeck will be there.

Text Authorship:

  • by (Joseph) Hilaire Belloc (1870 - 1953), "Ballad of Hell and of Mrs Roebeck" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Robert McCauley , "Ballad of Hell and of Mrs Roebeck", 2019, from Poems of Hilaire Belloc, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2020-01-09
Line count: 28
Word count: 169

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