Now Listen to Me and I'll Tell You My Views by Andrew Barton Paterson

Now listen to me and I'll tell you my views concerning the African war, / And the man who upholds any different views, the same is a rotten Pro-Boer! / (Though I'm getting a little bit doubtful myself, as it drags on week after week: / But it's better not ask any questions at all -- let us silence all doubts with a shriek! )

And first let us shriek the unstinted abuse that the Tory Press prefer / De Wet is a madman, and Steyn is a liar, and Kruger a pitiful cur! / (Though I think if Oom Paul -- as old as he is -- were to walk down the Strand with his gun, / A lot of these heroes would hide in the sewers or take to their heels and run! / For Paul he has fought like a man in his day, but now that he's feeble and weak / And tired, and lonely, and old and grey, of course it's quite safe to shriek! )

And next let us join in the bloodthirsty shriek, Hooray for Lord Kitchener's "bag"! / For the fireman's torch and the hangman's cord -- they are hung on the English Flag! / In the front of our brave old army! Whoop! the farmhouse blazes bright. / And their women weep and their children die -- how dare they presume to fight!

For none of them dress in a uniform, the same as by rights they ought. / They're fighting in rags and in naked feet, like Wallace's Scotchmen fought! / (And they clothe themselves from our captured troops -- and they're catching them every week; / And they don't hang them -- and the shame is ours, but we cover the shame with a shriek! )

And, lastly, we'll shriek the political shriek as we sit in the dark and doubt; / Where the Birmingham Judas* led us in, and there's no one to lead us out. / And Rosebery** -- whom we depended upon! Would only the Oracle speak! / "You go to the Grocers," says he, "for your laws! " By heavens! it's time to shriek!

The Bulletin, 29 March 1902