Thursday 18 April 2013

Just Eton boys, grown heavy

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I've always loved these lines by Praed, although I did not go to Eton. I wonder if David Cameron, Boris Johnson and the Archbishop of Canterbury do. 


In Parliament I fill my seat,
With many other noodles;
And lay my head in Jermyn Street,
And sip my hock at Boodles.
But often, when the cares of life
Have set my temples aching,
When visions haunt me of a wife,
When duns await my waking ...
I wish that I could run away
From House, and Court, and Levee,
Where bearded men appear today
Just Eton boys, grown heavy;
That I could bask in childhood’s sun,
And dance o’er childhood’s roses,
And find huge wealth in one pound one,
Vast wit in broken noses;
And play Sir Giles at Datchet Lane,
And call the milk-maids Houris;
That I could be a boy again,
A happy boy, at Drury’s.





Mr. Cameron belongs to White's, of course, though I feel Brooks's is his spiritual home because I think he is a Whig.

It is amazing to me who many very good, classic authors, like Praed, are not read by my generation or younger people. He is a wonderful light poet and has the easiness of the wits of either Charleses' days.

5 comments:

  1. Haha not much "think" about it :)

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  2. He is in bed with those who claim to be Whigs, but are closet nanny socialists.

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  3. "Lay my head in Jermyn St" - Is that for a bespoke shirt fitting?

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  4. Mr. Cameron may be cleaning out the closets of 'you know what's' for his own reason 'you know what' but he's a Whig.
    Well what do you know? It's the best of both Whigs.

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  5. And I like the poem too.

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