Poems : Medley and Palestina / by J.W. DeForest [electronic text]

THE CANNIBAL CONQUEST.

The king of the Cannibal Islands Decided to conquer some drylands; So he marched over valleys and highlands With twenty-four cannibal braves; With two dozen man-eating knaves, All hungry as so many graves, He skirmished through earthlands and skylands, Defiant of weather and waves.

He came to Atlantis the Holy Whose burghers were lamblike and lowly, Though growing a touch roly-poly And languid in fasting and prayers. They fasted while sleeping, like bears, And prayed without leaving their chairs, And walked in the narrow way slowly, Much cumbered with Beelzebub's wares.

Then followed a wonderful battle; Good lack, how the cannons did rattle! The women, the children, the cattle Took part in the desperate strife. They carried the war to the knife; With slaughter Atlantis was rife; About it the muses will prattle While Jupiter granteth them life.

The Cannibals came out the winners, They made twenty-five hearty dinners, They gobbled the saints and the sinners, And put all Atlantis to sack.

They spared neither yellow nor black, The hungriest, greediest pack Of robbers and pickers and skinners That ever sent region to rack.

Henceforth they were chiefs of the nation And lived by relief legislation; They served up a bill for collation And fattened a law like a beast. Their appetites daily increased; A lunch was a patent, at least, While railroads and steam-navigation Scarce furnished the joints for a feast.