"More Rope"

Theres a bandit with a blunderbuss who loiters in the lane;
Theres a robber with a rifle down the road;
There are thieves and thugs in dozens,
And their cobbers and their cousins,
Whove designs upon my person and abode.
There are gunmen in the garden, who, if given rope enough,
Will snare themselves, they say, beyond all hope.
Just a bit more theft and killing,
And theyll make the game too willing;
And in the meantime  who supplies the rope?

I am full of civic spirit, and the public dutys plain,
And to know the laws alert is very nice;
But its useless my dissembling,
That I feel a nervous trembling
When I think I might be the sacrifice!
For Id hate to be a bit of cheese to bait a burglar trap,
Or a target for a gunman full of dope;
Though Im keen on law and order,
I am neither cop nor warder,
And I certainly decline to be the rope!