Stolen Shamelessly From Armavirumque

This is why.

Liz and her Ivy-educated, Hamptons-trotting colleagues disapprove of Rudyard Kipling, natch, but reading through the disgraceful comments of the press from today’s White House Press briefing, I couldn’t help thinking of Kipling’s poem “Tommy”:
Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an’ they’re starvation cheap;
An’ hustlin’ drunken soldiers when they’re goin’ large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin’ in full kit.
Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, ’ow’s yer soul?”
But it’s “Thin red line of ’eroes” when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it’s “Thin red line of ’eroes” when the drums begin to roll.

6 Responses to “Stolen Shamelessly From Armavirumque”

1. Ken Summers says:

   May 18, 2005 at 2:52 pm

   Yeah, they can talk of gin and beer while they’re quartered safe out here…

2. tree hugging sister says:

   May 18, 2005 at 3:12 pm

   An’ you’re sent to penny-fights an’ Aldershot it;
   But when it comes to slaughter
   You will do your work on water…

3. Ken Summers says:

   May 18, 2005 at 3:34 pm

   The line that always gets me is:

   But ‘e put me safe inside
   and just before ‘e died,
   “I ‘ope you liked yer drink” sez Gunga Din

   Seriously, I detest nearly all poetry except Kipling.

4. tree hugging sister says:

   May 18, 2005 at 4:05 pm

   My favorite has always been the last:

   Yes, Din! Din! Din!
   You Lazarushian-leather Gunga Din!
   Though I’ve belted you and flayed you,
   By the livin’ Gawd that made you,
   You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!

   Kipling is magic.

5. Nightfly says:

   May 18, 2005 at 5:07 pm

   I and my well-thumbed copy of “Just So Stories” thank you, Ms. Sister. He is magic.

6. tree hugging sister says:

   May 18, 2005 at 5:20 pm

   I used to read that book to Ebola, during breaks from reading him the Ring Trilogy.