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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE YANKEE DUDE'LL DO, by                    
First Line: When cholly swung his golf stick on the links
Last Line: And the world will please take notice that the yankee dude'll do!
Subject(s): Heroism; Heroes; Heroines


WHEN Cholly swung his golf stick on the links,
Or knocked the tennis ball across the net,
With his bangs done up in cunning little kinks —
When he wore the tallest collar he could get,
O, it was the fashion then
To impale him on the pen —
To regard him as a being made of putty through and through;
But his racquet's laid away,
He is roughing it to-day,
And heroically proving that the Yankee dude'll do

When Algy, as some knight of old arrayed,
Was the leading figure at the "fawncy ball,"
We loathed him for the silly part he played;
He was set down as a monkey — that was all!
O, we looked upon him then
As unfit to class with men —
As one whose heart was putty and whose brains were made of glue;
But he's thrown his cane away,
And he grasps a gun to-day,
While the world beholds him, knowing what the Yankee dude'll do.

When Clarence cruised about upon his yacht,
Or drove out with his footman in the park,
His mamma, it was generally thought,
Ought to have him in her keeping after dark!
O, we ridiculed him then,
We impaled him on the pen,
We thought he was effeminate, we dubbed him "Sissy," too;
But he nobly marched away,
He is eating pork to-day,
And heroically proving that the Yankee dude'll do.

How they hurled themselves against the angry foe
In the jungle and the trenches on the hill!
When the word to charge was given every dude was on the go —
He was there to die, to capture, or to kill!
O, he struck his level when
Men were called upon again
To preserve the ancient glory of the old red, white, and blue!
He has thrown his spats away,
He is wearing spurs to-day,
And the world will please take notice that the Yankee dude'll do!





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