Lost Opportunity

Lawblimey!  I missed me vercation!
   I've tumbled - too late for the bus -
That the makin' of laws is for fellers wot jaws,
   Like me, with the picturesque cuss.
In me youth I'd an innercent notion
   I'd flop in this law-givin' trade,
An' I've wasted me youth in 'ard yakka - ah, strooth!
   When I 'ad all the gifts ready-made.

'Ere's me with a mouthful of phrases
   I gathered in by-ways an' lanes;
An' I've wasted 'em all thro' ignorin' the call
   To a game w'ich I thort needed brains.
Too modest, that's me.  Too retirin':
   To blind to me own blinkin' worth,
When today I might at the top of the tree
   Pickin' plums in a Senator's berth.

An' yet - I dunno.  Things is ordered,
   An' blokes sorter drifts to a lurk
That is best for their bent.  An' if that means content,
   Well, I ain't got no quarrel with work.
An' when I git thinkin' of statecraft,
   Its schemes an' its shams an' its shifts,
'Tisn't much of a game in the end.  All the same,
   It's a pity I've wasted me gifts!