20 JANUARY 1912, Page 17

POETRY.

THE RULE OF KING GOMBEEN. 0 DEVLIN dear, an' did ye hear the news that's gain' round ? The farmers are resolved to bring the Party to the ground. They're burstin' up intirely the Nationalist machine, For there's a cruel plot agin' the rule of King Gombeen, I met with Johnny Dillon—faix I he wasn't lookin' grand And says he, " How's poor ould Russell, an' how does he stand ? "

He's-the quarest of teetotallers that iver yet was seen, For lie's fightin' like a Trojan in defence of the shebeen!

I'm sick of Horace Plunkett and of hearin' what lie's done To win for poor ould Ireland a good place in the sun.

Hint a credit to the country P What the blazes do they mean? Why, the credit of the country is nothin' but Gombeen!

0 if the struggling grocers are defrauded of their due, Let it remind them of the way King John oppressed the Jew!, So let us hope the Holy Pope will issue a decree To fix five shillings as the price foriv'ry pound of tea,. Whin laws canetop the'Guinnesses from brewin' anus, stout, An' whin the Fates make Willie Yeats a Unionist Boy Scout,

Then desert the Shylocks that keep the country lean, But till that day I'll bolster up the rule of King Gombeen.

C. L. G.