Lyr Req: The Incorrigible (poem by Guy Boas)

Subject: Req words to poem 'The Incorrigible'
From: GUEST,Eoin O'Buadhaigh
Date: 05 Feb 11 - 11:49 AM

Can anyone help, I am looking for the words of a poem,
'The Incorrigible'
First lines are:
He didn't like authority, O'Kelly was his name.
He wouldn't do a scrap of work or play a single game.
They tried their best to make him but it wasn't any use.
He resistedall coercion and was deaf to all abuse.
many thanks
Eoin

Subject: RE: Req words to poem 'The Incorrigible'
From: GUEST,999
Date: 06 Feb 11 - 11:43 AM

I looked--to no avail. Sorry.

Subject: RE: Req words to poem 'The Incorrigible'
From: GUEST,1000
Date: 06 Feb 11 - 01:14 PM

Eoin, do have more info? How come you know those lines?

Subject: RE: Req words to poem 'The Incorrigible'
From: GUEST,hento
Date: 06 Mar 11 - 10:35 AM

Eoin
    I to remember the start of this poem
from school days, did you ever find it?

Subject: RE: Req words to poem 'The Incorrigible'
From: GUEST,LYNNE
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 09:38 AM

I learned this poem at least 47 years ago but can still remember some of the words but not in the correct order but my recolections may help jog your memory so here goes following on from what you already have
He wouldn't rise for early school
"    "    go to bed
"    " answer adsum when the call over was read
"    " costrue to Ceaser or attempt a simple sum and when they asked him questions he pretended he was dumb.
He would't cap the masters and he wouldn't call them sir, when the prefects tried to make him fag he declined to stir.
He was cheeky to the matron, he was saucy to the maids he was very insobordinant on ATC parades.He wouldn'???? and he wouldn't write out lines and when he lost his libary books he wouln't pay the fines.
I know there is a line about not keeping in bounds and the poem ends with something like
They discovered him one day very early in the morning breaking out to run away. As this clearly was the moment his authority to show, the head expelled O Kelly but O Kelly would't go.

I hope this helps

Subject: RE: Req words to poem 'The Incorrigible'
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 12:40 PM

By coincidence, this appears on Telegraph online, dated just last week. HTH. No attribution, but maybe someone there at the Telegraph could help? ~~

===Telegraph.co.uk
12:00AM BST 14 Apr 2001
Comment
THE schoolboy O'Kelly's misconduct was celebrated in verse. His acts of resistance multiplied, until at last he was summoned to the headmaster's study. Then:
The Head expelled O'Kelly
- but O'Kelly wouldn't go!
Luc (yes, it's him again) Vandevelde, the headmaster of Marks & Spencer, knows the feeling. He wants to shut up shop in France and Belgium, but will the staff let him? Not likely...===

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Req words to poem 'The Incorrigible'
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 12:55 PM

Sorry ~~ misread: not last week, but 10 years ago.

Still...?

Subject: Lyr Req: THE INCORRIGIBLE (poem by Guy Boas)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 16 Aug 15 - 07:12 PM

It's in An English Book of Light Verse by Guy Boas (Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1944), page 273.

It was also in Punch in 1926.


THE INCORRIGIBLE
Guy Boas

He didn't like authority; O'Kelly was his name.
He wouldn't do a stroke of work or play a single game.
They did their best to make him, but it wasn't any use.
He resisted all coercion and was deaf to all abuse.

Their efforts to instruct him he persistently ignored.
He wouldn't look at anything they wrote upon the board.
He wouldn't construe Caesar or attempt a simple sum,
And when they asked him questions he pretended he was dumb.

He wouldn't rise for early school, he wouldn't go to bed,
He wouldn't answer "Adsum" when the call-over was read ;
He wouldn't blow the organ, and he wouldn't write out lines,
And when he lost the lib'ry books he wouldn't pay the fines.

He wouldn't cap the masters and he wouldn't call them "Sir;"
The prefects tried to make him fag but he declined to stir ;
He was cheeky to the matron, he was saucy to the maids.
He was very insubordinate on A.T.C. parades.

He wouldn't keep in bounds, and they discovered him one day
Very early in the morning breaking out to run away.
As this clearly was the moment their authority to show,
The Head expelled O'Kelly, but O'Kelly wouldn't go.


[I think this is complete, but I'm not sure; I had to work some special mojo to extract it from a book that Google classifies as "snippet view."]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Incorrigible (poem by Guy Boas)
From: maeve
Date: 17 Aug 15 - 05:54 PM

Nicely done, Jim Dixon!