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C J Dennis - City of Dreams
Work rating: Low

Oh, we might have a marvellous city
   Were we only less keen on cash
Less avid for things -- more`s the pity --
   That fade and are gone in a flash,
A city where duffers in my line
   In wrapt adoration fall flat
To behold its superlative skyline --
   But there isn`t much money in that.

Oh, we might have a city most splendid
   Were sordid self-seeking denied.
Were good taste and culture attended
   By pride that transcends money-pride.
Then, urged by more glorious dreaming
   Than moved beneath Pericles` hat,
We would out-Athens Athens in scheming
   But -- there isn`t much money in that.

So let`s build our city according
   To canons commercial and sane.
Where every house is a hoarding
   And every "palace" a pain.
Let us mingle the Gothic and Moorish
   In the nice neo-Georgian flat.
What odds, tho` they blither it`s boorish?
   Who cares?  For there`s money in that.

Oh, let`s have a conglomeration
   Of all architectural ills.
We build for ouselves, not th enation,
   And to advertise somebody`s pills
With piles that are proud and pretentious
   And styles that are "pretty" and fat.
And a fig for their strictures sententious!
   There`s not a brass farthing in that.

And so we`ll grow richer and richer
   While curleywigs crawl the facade
Of the home of the sur-super-picture
   Or pubs where the profits are made.
Yet -- We might have a marvellous city
   If we only knew how to grow fat
At the game.  But we don`t -- more`s the pity.
   So there isn`t much money in that.

And when we have piled up the riches,
   And pass, and leave never a trace,
A grave-digger, with clay on his breeches,
   Will come and pitch dirt on our face.
And our passing may serve to remind him,
   As he gives the grave-mound a last pat:
"Well, he`s gone; and he`s left nought behind him,
   And there isn`t much honor in that."
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