Jack Barrel's Song
Have you cares, and would be quit 'em? Yearn ye for security?
Heat your pallid cheeks with claret In Jack Barrel's company.
But out with ninnies that deny, And shrivelled men of chastity, None but in whom the blood can canter Keep Jack Barrel's company.
The rashest barley, frothy-faced, The bloodiest Southern Burgundy, Are fetched from mildewed cellars up To keep Jack Barrel's company.
None but has a mind and speaks it, None but loves maturity, None but the open-palmed and hearted Keep Jack Barrel's company.
But out with lily-livered students, Whining at their puberty,
And smarming Leftie politicians With their sham sincerity, And puritans that sermonise On other men's morality, For none that spurn their fellow-sinners Keep Jack Barrel's company.
None but loves tobacco smoke, And filthy jokes and ribaldry, None but has a world of pals Shall keep Jack Barrel's company.
But sometimes in the blanket dark, When bitter winds make minstrelsy, Visions of the slobbering vampires, Tusked ghouls and devilry,
Leap upon my creaking sheets And keep Jack Barrel's company.
And then I swear and shake and shudder, And bitter ice slides over me, And all the ruby-cheeked Bacchantes Leave Jack Barrel's company.
Remorse, as if a ten-course dinner Sits on my chest and pummels me, And goblins scold me for a sinner That make Jack Barrel's company.
But out you crew that thinks to crow I pay the boozer's penalty, For fiery-cheeked and cuffing angels Rout Jack Barrel's company.
And then upon the yeasty clouds, Quaffing from their trumpetry, St Michael and the seraph buglers Keep Jack Barrel's company. Nigel Frith
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