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Robert W Service - The Volunteer
Work rating: Medium

Sez I: My Country calls? Well, let it call.
    I grins perlitely and declines wiv thanks.
Go, let `em plaster every blighted wall,
    `Ere`s ONE they don`t stampede into the ranks.
Them politicians with their greasy ways;
    Them empire-grabbers — fight for `em? No fear!
I`ve seen this mess a-comin` from the days
    Of Algyserious and Aggydear:
        I`ve felt me passion rise and swell,
        But . . . wot the `ell, Bill? Wot the `ell?

Sez I: My Country? Mine? I likes their cheek.
    Me mud-bespattered by the cars they drive,
Wot makes my measly thirty bob a week,
    And sweats red blood to keep meself alive!
Fight for the right to slave that they may spend,
    Them in their mansions, me `ere in my slum?
No, let `em fight wot`s something to defend:
    But me, I`ve nothin` — let the Kaiser come.
        And so I cusses `ard and well,
        But . . . wot the `ell, Bill? Wot the `ell?

Sez I: If they would do the decent thing,
    And shield the missis and the little `uns,
Why, even I might shout "God save the King",
    And face the chances of them `ungry guns.
But we`ve got three, another on the way;
    It`s that wot makes me snarl and set me jor:
The wife and nippers, wot of `em, I say,
    If I gets knocked out in this blasted war?
        Gets proper busted by a shell,
        But . . . wot the `ell, Bill? Wot the `ell?

Ay, wot the `ell`s the use of all this talk?
    To-day some boys in blue was passin` me,
And some of `em they `ad no legs to walk,
    And some of `em they `ad no eyes to see.
And — well, I couldn`t look `em in the face,
    And so I`m goin`, goin` to declare
I`m under forty-one and take me place
    To face the music with the bunch out there.
        A fool, you say! Maybe you`re right.
        I`ll `ave no peace unless I fight.
        I`ve ceased to think; I only know
        I`ve gotta go, Bill, gotta go.
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