The Poetry Corner

The Moral

By Rudyard Kipling

You mustn't groom an Arab with a file. You hadn't ought to tension-spring a mule. You couldn't push a brumby fifty mile And drop him in a boiler-shed to cool. I'll sling you through six counties in a day. I'll hike you up a grade of one in ten. I am Duty, Law and Order under way, I'm the Mentor of banana-fingered men! I will make you I know your left hand from your right. I will teach you not to drink about your biz. I'm the only temperance advocate in sight! I am all the Education Act there is!