To Mandalay - Greeting

(BY WALTYARD WHIPMING)     I     A song of Mandalay!     Allons, Camerados, Desperadoes, Amontillados!     Hear my Recitative, my Romanza, my Spring Onion!     II     You three-striped sergeants, you corporals, non-commissioned officers,     and men with one or more good-conduct badges,     You indifferent and bad characters, am I not also one with you?     And will you not then hear my song?     This for prelude.     III     You, O Mandalay, I sing!     For I see the pagoda, the Moulmein and essentially wotto pagoda,     And the pagoda is above the trees,     But the trees are below the pagoda.     IV     I see the flying-fish sitting on the branches, I hear them sing,     and they fly and mate and build their nests in the branches;     I see a dun-coloured aboriginal she-female, mongoliane, petite, squat-faced,     And she has a cast in her sinister optic and a snub nose but her heart is true;     And I gaze into her heart (which is true), and I find that she is musing (as indeed I often muse) on ME,     Me Prononc, Me Imperturbe, Me Inconscionabilamente.     V     I see [a page or so unavoidably omitted for lack of space, - refer to guide-book] and ... the wind, and the palm-trees idly swaying to and fro in the wind (now to, now fro), and I hear the bells of a temple, and I know that they are singing, and what it is that they would say.     VI     What is it that they would say do you ask Me?     VII     How shall I tell you, how shall I make you understand?     For I know that you do not love Me, you do not comprehend Me, you say that this sort of thing does you harm;     But I will even now do my darndest (as indeed I always do more or less), and if you do not like it,     Waal, Soldados?     VIII     Behold, I will write it as a song and put it in italics, so that even you will know that it is a song;     So listen, listen, Camerados! for I am about to spout and my song shall be masculine and virile. A bas your metre, la lanterne your rhyme, conspuez your punctuation,     I say pooh-pooh!