Saturday, January 23, 2016

The Justice of the Peace

DISTINGUISH carefully between the two,
  This thing is yours, the other thing is mine.
You have a shirt, a brimless hat, a shoe
  And half a coat. I am the Lord benign
Of fifty hundred acres of fat land
To which I have a right. You understand?

I have a right because I have, because,
  Because I have—because I have a right.
Now be quite calm and good, obey the laws,
  Remember your low station, do not fight
Against the goad, because, you know, it pricks
Whenever the uncleanly demos kicks.

I do not envy you your hat, or shoe.
  Why should you envy me my small estate?
It’s fearfully illogical in you
  To fight with economic force and fate.
Moreover, I have got the upper hand,
And mean to keep it. Do you understand?

~Hilaire Belloc: in Sonnets and Verse

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