I'm half afraid to lift my lute
And sing my song to-day:
For I belong to the Institute
And not to the N.U.J.
When Byron, Burns and Browning sang
They did it all alone:
The minstrel now must join a gang,
And may not choose his own.
So be it. Let the T.U.C.
All poesy disperse:
And gradually, let there be
A Ministry of Verse.
But if Apollo must give way
To Someone in Whitehall,
I think Parnassus may not play—
We shall not sing at all.
Meanwhile, in this immense dispute,
I fear to say my say,
For I belong to the Institute
And not to the N.U.J.
October 22, 1944