Yes! Shah-in-Shah in truth I must be—
Or why this fuss of the Feringhee ?
Why all these hosts my steps that crowd,
"With bows so low, and cheers so loud ?
If the Inglees Queen, so great among princes.
All this respect for me evinces;
If the Czarovitch, when I appear.
Falls flat, as the flattest of bitter Deer;
If all these Wuzeers, and Aghast and Khans,
For me spend their time and their tomauns;
Their parks and palaces lay at my feet,
Muster for me their army and fleet.
And their miles upon miles of merchant ships;
If without the ferashes and their whips,
Manchester gathers, and Liverpool runs,
With voices of men and thunder of guns.
To the light of the face of the Shah-in-Shah,
As unto the amber is drawn the straw;
All this is proof in more than words,
I am King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
They told me that leaving Teheran,
Danger of eating dirt I ran,—
That out of the realms of the Shah-in-Shah
I should find rulers, called Light and Law.
May the graves of their mothers be defiled
That fain with such bosh had their Shah beguiled!
For the more of these Feringhee Kaffirs I ’ve known,
The whiter to me my face has grown
I’ve seen the land, calls tne Russian lord,
And there the rulers are stick and sword:
In St. Petersburg, as at Ispahan,
To Czar, as to Shah, what is a man?
To the land of the Prussia when I came,
The tongue was changed, but the rule the same:
The stars on the coats may be sown more thick.
But the Prusski’s Shah-in-Shah is Stick!
And here in the land of the Inglees
They live and move but the Shah to please.
If my diamonds are as the sun in the skies,
What is the brightness of my eyes?
They make a daylight instead of one:
The Queen from her palace for me retires,
To Teheran binding it with wires
Here’s Sutherland Beg makes his palace mine.
And all but bids skies for me to shine:
At the Crystal Palace, Effendi Grove
With the rain itself for my pleasure strove :
And out of the water brought the fire
To compass the Shah-in-Shah’s desire.
In a wonderful land of wax I’ve been,
And houris fairer than Heaven have seen:
To the Inglees’ Bank a visit I’ve paid
Where Reuter’s gold for me is laid:
And all that have seen me, and all I have seen,
As dust in the path of the Shah hath been:
And, instead of eating dirt, I see
But Kaffirs eating dirt to me.
Bibliography
“The Shah’s Impressions.” Punch; or the London Charivari” (12 July 1873): 11. HathiTrust online version of a copy in the University of California Library. Web. 4 March 2022.
Created 4 March 2022