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 Slaves

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 American

Be best applied to its own nation?

Ere every shop shall be a store

And every

Trade a Trust . . .

Many men in many lands

Know when their cause is just.

There will be quite a large attendance

When we Declare our Independence.