Others answer our questions - Thou art free.
We ask and ask - Thou smilest and art still,
Out-topping knowledge! You to pass the Bill
Would, with your peers, uncrown His Majesty;
Planting some hundreds barons, five or three,
Making the Upper House your voting place,
Sparing the plutocratic of the race
To the foil'd scheming of democracy;
And then, when asked to name the peers to be,
Self-schooled, self made, self honoured, self secure,
You use a phrase unguessed at - "Wait and see."
Such snubs the Opposition must endure,
All questions which they put, all doubts they raise,
Find their reply in that Asqithian phrase.
- The poem was published in the Moxford Book of English Verse, a collection of parodies. The name of the poet in whose style the parody is written appears at the top of each poem with the vowels substituted. This poem was done in the style of Matthew Arnold.
- 'Upper House' refers to the House of Lords, the Upper House of the United Kingdom Parliament