Remote and Ineffectual Don

A. N. L. Munby

Remote and ineffectual Don,

Where have you gone, where have you gone?

Don in scarlet, Don in tails,

Don in advertising Daily Mails,

Don in Office, Don in power,

Don talking on the Woman's Hour,

Don knocking up a constitution,

Don with ideas on prostitution,

Don who is permanently plussed,

Don floating an Investment Trust,

Don judging jive at barbecue,

Don dressing down the E.T.U.,

Don architecturally brash,

Don not afraid to have a bash,

Don with Bentley, Don with Rolls,

Don organising Gallop Polls,

Don back from Russia, off to Rome,

Don on the Third, the Light, the Home,

Don recently ennobled Peer,

Don Minister, Don Brigadier,

Don brassy, Don belligerent,

Don tipping off for ten per cent,

Don christian-naming with the Stars,

Don talking loud in public bars,

Remote and ineffectual Don,

Where have you gone, where have you gone?

Thoughts on re-reading Hilaire Belloc's famous Lines to a Don. by A. N. L. Munby.

quoted in Rose, J. and Ziman, J. (1964) Camford Observed. Gollancz.