Stanley

If Stanley were what Stanley seems
No person in his wildest dreams
   Would say, "Beneath that shiny hat
   There stalks a sturdy democrat."
His air of elegance and ease
Hints at patrician tendencies,
   Yet this deceives: for Stanley can
   Swap hard knocks with the toughest man.

The years were kind when Stanley reigned;
Loans all too easily were gained,
   And so he splashed the cash about.
   Tho' not so much as some make out.
For men, wise after the event,
Now point him out to represent
   The fool who rides before the fall,
   But - stop a bit, were not we all?

He spent a bit.  But just the same,
Did we not all play Stanley's game?,
   Yet now we've ridden to the fall,
   We'd make him scapegoat for it all
And heap upon his luckless head
The sins of statesmen long years dead.
   Too prone the while to underrate
   His wiser acts to serve the State.

They say that Stanley's coming back,
Why not?  The demagogue, the quack
   Propound their schemes, and still we lag
   Upon the road while dull weeks drag.
Better the chastened man, say I,
With past mistakes to profit by,
   If he's a sound, sane democrat.
   And Stanley may be all of that.