| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| The Working Man’s Song |
| | | John Stuart Blackie (1809–95) |
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| I AM no gentleman, not I! | |
| No bowing, scraping thing! | |
| I bear my head more free and high | |
| Than titled count or king. | |
| I am no gentleman, not I! | 5 |
| No, no, no! | |
| And only to one Lord on high | |
| My head I bow. | |
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| I am no gentleman, not I! | |
| No vain and varnish’d thing! | 10 |
| And from my heart, without a die, | |
| My honest thoughts I fling. | |
| I am no gentleman, not I! | |
| No, no, no! | |
| Our stout John Knox was none—and why | 15 |
| Should I be so? | |
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| I am no gentleman, not I! | |
| No mincing, modish thing, | |
| In gay saloon a butterfly, | |
| Some wax-doll Miss to wing. | 20 |
| I am no gentleman, not I! | |
| No, no, no! | |
| No moth, to sport in fashion’s eye, | |
| A Bond Street beau. | |
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| I am no gentleman, not I! | 25 |
| No bully, braggart thing, | |
| With jockeys on the course to vie, | |
| With bull-dogs in the ring. | |
| I am no gentleman, not I! | |
| No, no, no! | 30 |
| The working man might sooner die | |
| Than sink so low. | |
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| I am no gentleman, not I! | |
| No star-bedizen’d thing! | |
| My fathers filch’d no dignity, | 35 |
| By fawning to a king. | |
| I am no gentleman, not I! | |
| No, no, no! | |
| And to the wage of honesty | |
| My rank I owe. | 40 |
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| I am no gentleman, not I! | |
| No bowing, scraping thing! | |
| I bear my head more free and high | |
| Than titled count or king. | |
| I am no gentleman, not I! | 45 |
| No, no, no! | |
| And thank the blessed God on high, | |
| Who made me so! | |
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