GERMANY

The German is a stolid soul,

And finds best suited to his taste

A pipe with an enormous bowl,

A fraulein with an ample waist;

He loves his beer, his Kaiser, and

( Donner und blitz! ) his Fatherland!

He's perfectly contented if

He listens in the Op'ra-house

To Wagner's well-concealed‘ motif,’

Or waltzes of the nimble Strauss;

And all discordant bands he sends

Abroad, to soothe his foreign friends.

When he is glad at anything

He cheers like a dyspeptic goat,

‘ Hoch! hoch!’ You'd think him suffering

From some affection of the throat.

A disagreeable noise,‘ tis true,

But pleases him and do n't hurt you!

A glass of lager underneath the bough,

A long‘ churchwarden’ and an ample‘ frau’

Beside me sitting in a Biergarten,

Ach! Biergarten were paradise enow!