Famous Poet

Americanisation – G. K. Chesterton

Britannia needs no Boulevards,

No spaces wide and gay:

Her march was through the crooked streets Along the narrow way.

Nor looks she where, New York’s seduction,

The Broadway leadeth to destruction.

Britannia needs no Cafes:

If Coffee needs must be,

Its place should be the Coffee-house

Where Johnson growled for Tea;

But who can hear that human mountain

Growl for an ice-cream soda-fountain?

She needs no Russian Theatrey

Mere Father strangles Mother,

In scenes where all the characters And colours kill each other

Her boast is freedom had by halves,

And Britons never shall be Slavs.

But if not hers the Dance of Death,

Great Dostoievsky’s dance,

And if the things most finely French

Are better done in France

Might not Americanisation

Be best applied to its own nation?

Ere every shop shall be a store

And every Trade a Trust . . .

Lo, many men in many lands

Know when their cause is just.

There will be quite a large attendance

When we Declare our Independence.