Old Canada; or, Gee Buck Gee
Old Canada; or, Gee Buck Gee
Original Text
Alexander McLachlan, Poems and Songs (Toronto: Hunter, Rose, 1874): 114-15. Internet Archive.
1The country's goin' fast to ruin!
2This edication's our undoin',
3We're comin' to a pretty pass,
4Our boys who scarce have been to grass,
5Have all gone off, bound to the teachers,
6Or city clerks, or peddlin' preachers;
8All strummin' on them cuss'd pianos,
9And try to trip us up with rules
10They've learn'd away at Grammar Schools,
11And look upon the likes o' me--
12Who nurs'd them criters on my knee--
14And then they're all Book Farmers too!
15And they would teach me what to do;
16Manurin', ploughin', drainin', seedin',
17All farmin's to be done by readin'!
18O Lord! O Lord! it makes me mad,
19When every striplin' o' a lad,
20And every edicated ass,
21Who scarce knows growin' wheat from grass,
22Must teach the like o' me to farm,
23Wi' Latin names as long's my arm;
24Them criters teach the like o' me?
25Who farm'd ere they could reach my knee,
26Aint it presumption?--Gee Buck Gee!
27I tell ye what! them and their books,
29And sure enough this edication
30Will be the ruin o' the nation;
31We'll not ha' men, it's my opinion,
32Fit to defend our New Dominion;
33Not one o' them can swing an axe,
34But they will bore you with the facts;
35I'd send the criters off to work,
36But that, by any means they'll shirk!
37Grandad to some o' them I be,
38O, that's what riles and vexes me!
39Ain't it a caution?--Gee Buck Gee!
Notes
7] darters: daughters. Sultanas: wives or mistresses of a sultan. Back to Line
13] Gee Buck Gee: giddap, horse, giddap! (urging a horse to move faster). Back to Line
28] pukes: vomit. Back to Line
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2011