Sir Alan Patrick Herbert 1931
Minor rewriting by Alex Ellis to make it less xenophobic
Oh blessed be the Briton, his beef and his beer And all the good waters that keep him in cheer But blessed beyond cattle and blessed beyond kegs Is the brave British breakfast of bacon and eggs Chorus 1 (alternating) Bacon and eggs, bacon and eggs Sing bacon, sweet bacon, crisp bacon and eggs Thus armed and thus engined, well-shaven and gay We leap to our labors and conquer the day While paltry pale countries as meager as moles Must crawl through the morning on coffee and rolls Chorus 2 (alternating) Coffee and rolls, coffee and rolls Sing coffee, black coffee, vile coffee and rolls What wonder the Frenchman, blown out with new bread Gesticulates oft and is light in the head Our perfect control of our arms and our legs We owe to our ballast of bacon and eggs What wonder that Fortune our people embrace Her loveliest laurels bedecked round our face While sorrow is heaped upon Prussians and Poles Who shame the glad morning with coffee and rolls What wonder the Russian looks redly because Our England, old England, is just as it was We’d fight to the finish, we’d drink to the dregs And dare to be Daniels on bacon and eggs The pale Europeans who fleetingly munch Too little at breakfast, too freely at lunch Sit sated in cafes, incapable souls And go to the devil on coffee and rolls Oh breakfast, oh breakfast, the meal of my heart Bring sausage, bring porridge, bring fish for a start Bring mushrooms and kidneys and partridges’ legs But let the foundation be bacon and eggs