Come listen to me story; its about a nice young man.
When the guards they wasn't wanting him ye could hear him sing a song,
It could be crude and very rude, and scurrilous in image,
As it rang out loud above the crowd crossing the Carlisle Bridge.

This young man he wrote a play that occasioned quite a scandal,
Provisionally and officially the irate called him a vandal;
Quick as a wink he took a drink to drown the vituperation,
To even the score he drank some more to his devalerastation.

Fifty years have passed and gone, and all his sins are shriven,
In our euro republic even republicans can be forgiven;
By the Royal Canal, in bronze banal, a statue to him they've erected,
But its hidden right well out of sight where it cannot be detected!