Comes the British bulldog firstsolid as a log
Hes so ugly in repose that hes a handsome dog;
Full of mild benevolence as his years increase;
Silent as a china dog on the mantelpiece.
Rub his sides and point his nose,
Click your tongue and in he goes,
To the thick of Britains foes
Enemies behind him close
(Silence for a while).
Comes a very different dogtell him at a glance.
Clipped and trimmed and frilled all round. Dandy dog of France.
(Always was a dandy dog, no matter what his age)
Now his every hair and frill is stiff as wire with rage.
Rub his sides and point his nose,
Click your tongue and in he goes,
While behind him Frances foes
Reel and surge and pack and close.
(Silence for a while.)
Next comes Belgiums market doghard to realise.
Go-cart dog and barrow doghes a great surprise.
Dog that never hurt a cat, did no person harm;
Friendly, kindly, round and fat as a Johnny Darm.
Rub his sides and point his nose,
Click your tongue and in he goes,
At the flank of Belgiums foes
Who could not behind him close
(Silence for a while).
Next comes Servias mongrel pupmongrel dawgs can fight;
Up or down, or down or up, whether wrong or right.
He was mad the other dayhe is mad today,
Hustling round and raising dust in his backyard way.
Rub his sides and point his nose,
Click your tongue and in he goes,
Twixt the legs of Servias foes,
Biting tails and rearmost toes
(Silence for a while.)
There are various terrier dawgs mixed up in the scrap,
Much too small for us to see, and too mad to yap.
Each one, on his frantic ownheard the row commence
Tore with tooth and claw a hole in the backyard fence.
No one called, but in they go,
Dogs with many a nameless woe,
Tripping up their common foe
(Silence for a while).
From the snows of Canada, dragging box and bale,
Comes the sledge-dog toiling on, sore-foot from the trail.
Hell be useful in the trench, when the nose is blue
Winter dog that knows the French and the English too.
Rub his sides and point his nose,
Click your tongue and in he goes,
At his fathers countrys foes,
And his mothers countrys foes.
(Silence for a while.)
See, in sunny Southern France a dog that runs by sight,
Lean and yellow, sharp of nose, long of leg and light,
Silent and bloodthirsty, too; Distance in his eyes,
Leaping high to gain his view, the Kangaroo Dog flies!
Rub his sides and point his nose,
Click your tongue and up he goes,
Lands amongst his countrys foes
And his countrys countrys foes;
While they sway and while they close
(Silence for a while).
See across the early snow, far across the plain,
Where the clouds are grey and low and winter comes again;
By the sand-dune and the marshand forest black and dumb
As dusky white as their winters night, the Russian wolf-hounds come!
(Silence for a while.)