'An equal Opportunity for all'!
All right: but the advantage will be small
Unless, as well, the citizen can find
Equality of Character and Mind;
And, sad to say, in almost every trade
Equality of Beauty is an aid.
I know the names of many a likely lad
Who'd all the chances Mr. Churchill had:
They had the birth, the schooling, all the lot,
But he's Prime Minister, and they are not.
Two Oxford girls may be alike in brain;
But one is beautiful, the other plain;
And on the stage, though both of them go far,
One is a stooge, the other is a star.
And so, dear comrades, when the war is done
Let's fight for Four Equalities, not one,
January 16, 1944
Notes
This poem first appeared in the Sunday Graphic, a British newspaper.
This version is taken from Light The Lights by A. P. Herbert, published 1945 by Methuen & Co.
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