"Lord Lundy" by Hilaire Belloc (poetry reading)

"Lord Lundy Who was too Freely Moved to Tears, and thereby ruined his Political Career" to give the full title.

What our Colonial Cousins make of Belloc or British comedy in general I have no idea. They are probably as confused as a colour-blind man asked to choose a new tie: he knows that some are better than others, but he can't see why. Of course, like him, when an outstanding example is praised by an authority they respect, why then they can see its qualities and appreciate it. (Incidentally, you fellows, Benny Hill is the Nadir, not the Zenith, of British comedy).^^

Belloc was elected to be a member of Parliament in 1906.He left politics to join with G.K. Chesterton to advance Distributism, which is neither Socialism nor Capitalism, believing that in both those social constructs wealth has too few owners, proposing that ownership should be widely distributed throughout the population.

Since then Socialism, particularly in the form the West calls Communism, has sunk without trace and Capitalism is now leaking and listing badly.

Perhaps it is the time to see if Belloc and Chesterton were right: they were certainly considerably more intelligent than those who have commanded wealth in the meantime.

A parvenu is somebody who has risen in the world but lacks the etiquette and manners to suit his or her new position. "One of the low on whom assurance sits as a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire" as T.S. Eliot snootily put it.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Lord
• Lundy
• Hilaire
• Belloc
• comic
• poem

[LlortnA]

I love this poem. Makes me laugh every time. Brilliant.