Rings no bells

When the Nobel Committee announced the winner of the Prize for Peace did anybody else think of this?

No? Just me, then? Right.

Anyway, as long as we’re here, it’s worth looking at the wonderful internal rhymes. Let’s be free with them
And share the BBC with them is lovely, isn’t it? There’s another (post-war) version with the line Let’s sweetly sympathize again/And help the scum to rise again, which is magnificent. This, I think, is the set of lyrics for this pre-VE recording. One can of course criticize the politics (tho’ being bitter about being bombed seems totally understandable, whoever is doing the bombing) but the rhythms and rhymes are beyond category. And bye-the-bye, when thinking about verbal elegance, notice how many of the words here are short, common monosyllables; one needn’t employ obscurities to sound erudite and urbane.

Don’t let’s be beastly to the Germans,
When our victory is ultimately won.
It was just those nasty Nazis who persuaded them to fight
And their Beethoven and Bach are really far worse than their bite

Let’s be meek to them
And turn the other cheek to them
And try to bring out their latent sense of fun.
Let’s give them full air parity,
And treat the rats with charity,
But don’t let’s be beastly to the Hun!

We must be kind
And with an open mind,
We must endeavour to find a way
To let the Germans know
That when the war is over,
They are not the ones who have to pay.

We must be sweet
And tactful and discreet,
And when they’ve suffered defeat,
We mustn’t let
Them feel upset,
Or ever get the feeling
That we’re cross with them or hate them.
Our future policy must be to reinstate them.

Don’t let’s be beastly to the Germans,
When we’ve definitely got them on the run
Let us treat them very kindly,
As we would a valued friend.
We might send them out some bishops,
As a form of lease and lend.

Let’s be sweet to them
And day by day repeat to them
That sterilization simply isn’t done.
Let’s help the dirty swine again
to occupy the Rhine again
But don’t let’s be beastly to the Hun.

We must be just
And win their love and trust
And in addition we must be wise
And ask the conquered lands
To join our hands to aid them
That would be a wonderful surprise

For many years
They’ve been in floods of tears
Because the poor little dears
Have been so wronged
And only longed
To cheat the world
Defeat the world
And beat the world to blazes
This is the moment when we ought to sing their praises

Don’t let’s be beastly to the Germans.
For you can’t deprive a gangster of his gun!
Though they’ve been a little naughty
To the Czechs and Poles and Dutch,
I don’t suppose those countries
Really minded very much.

Let’s be free with them
And share the BBC with them.
We mustn’t prevent them basking in the sun!
Let’s soften their defeat again,
And build their blasted fleet again,
But don’t let’s be beastly to the Hun!

Don’t let’s be beastly to the Germans
When the age of peace and plenty has begun
We must send them steel and oil and coal and everything they need
For their peaceable intentions can be always guaranteed.
Let’s employ with them a sort of ‘strength through joy’ with them,
They’re better than us at honest manly fun.
Let’s let them feel they’re swell again and bomb us all to hell again,
But don’t let’s be beastly to the Hun.

Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.