Peace And Dunkirk

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Spite of Dutch friends and English foes,
Poor Britain shall have peace at last:
Holland got towns, and we got blows;
  But Dunkirk's ours, we'll hold it fast.
  We have got it in a string,
  And the Whigs may all go swing,
For among good friends I love to be plain;
  All their false deluded hopes
  Will, or ought to end in ropes;
"But the Queen shall enjoy her own again."


Sunderland's run out of his wits,
  And Dismal double Dismal looks;
Wharton can only swear by fits,
  And strutting Hal is off the hooks;
  Old Godolphin, full of spleen,
  Made false moves, and lost his Queen:
Harry look'd fierce, and shook his ragged mane:
  But a Prince of high renown
  Swore he'd rather lose a crown,
"Than the Queen should enjoy her own again."

Our merchant-ships may cut the line,
  And not be snapt by privateers.
And commoners who love good wine
  Will drink it now as well as peers:
  Landed men shall have their rent,
  Yet our stocks rise cent, per cent.
The Dutch from hence shall no more millions drain:
  We'll bring on us no more debts,
  Nor with bankrupts fill gazettes;
"And the Queen shall enjoy her own again."

The towns we took ne'er did us good:
  What signified the French to beat?
We spent our money and our blood,
  To make the Dutchmen proud and great:
  But the Lord of Oxford swears,
  Dunkirk never shall be theirs.
The Dutch-hearted Whigs may rail and complain;
  But true Englishmen may fill
  A good health to General Hill:
"For the Queen now enjoys her own again."

© Jonathan Swift