Barrack Room Ballads

Barrack Room Ballads is a book of poetic military songs collected and written by Rudyard Kipling. Excerpt:

"You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:

We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.

Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face

The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.

For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' «Chuck him out, the brute!»

But it's «Saviour of 'is country» when the guns begin to shoot;

An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;

An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool—you bet that Tommy sees!"