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The Overworked Elocutionist
(Or "ROBERT REESE")
Once there was a little boy |
Whose name was Robert Reese, |
And every Friday afternoon |
He had to speak a piece. |
So many poems thus he learned |
That soon he had a store |
Of recitations in his head |
And still kept learning more. |
Now this it is what happened: |
He was called upon one week |
And totally forgot the piece |
He was about to speak. |
His brain he vainly cudgeled |
But no word was in his head, |
And so he spoke at random, |
And this is what he said; |
My beautiful, my beautiful, |
Who standest proudly by, |
It was the schooner Hesperus |
The breaking waves dashed high. |
Why is the Forum crowded? |
What means this stir in Rome? |
Under a spreading chestnut tree |
There is no place like home. |
When Freedom from her mountain height |
Cried, "Twinkle, little star," |
Shoot if you must this old gray head, |
King Henry of Navarre. |
If you're waking, call me early |
To be or not to be, |
Curfew must not ring to-night, |
Oh, woodman, spare that tree. |
Charge, Chester, Charge! On, Stanley, on! |
And let who will be clever, |
The boy stood on the burning deck |
But I go on for ever. |
The Kid Has Gone to the Colors
The Kid has gone to the Colors |
And we don't know what to say; |
The Kid we have loved and cuddled |
Stepped out for the Flag to-day. |
We thought him a child, a baby |
With never a care at all, |
But his country called him man-size |
And the Kid has heard the call. |
He paused to watch the recruiting, |
Where, fired by the fife and drum, |
He bowed his head to Old Glory |
And thought that it whispered: "Come!" |
The Kid, not being a slacker, |
Stood forth with patriot-joy |
To add his name to the roster— |
And God, we're proud of the boy! |
The Kid has gone to the Colors;
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