Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Politics, Heat, Light, Instruments, Amusement

    Reflecting on Benjamin Disraeli's aggressive parliamentary tactics, this poem opens by pondering the nature of the 'stuff' of 'the undertaker / Of the unsavoury trade of / Opposition firework-maker'. It then describes the construction of fiery parliamentary speeches as if they were fireworks. They are constructed from such unsavoury ingredients as 'inferences and fictions', and 'Steel-filings epigrammatic / And salt for burning blue [a reference to the traditional colour of the Conservative Party]', but 'Any paper a case will make / And any stick a handle', while the 'party' can supply 'cold water' for making 'Wet powder' fireworks. Having described the ascent and descent of the 'firework', notes that parliamentary fireworks 'Are warranted perfectly harmless'.