FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   >>  
the fresh green turf, The lover and the lady-- And the maidens wail to hear the tale Of the daughter of the Cadi! The Dirge of the Drinker. Brothers, spare awhile your liquor, lay your final tumbler down; He has dropped--that star of honour--on the field of his renown! Raise the wail, but raise it softly, lowly bending on your knees, If you find it more convenient, you may hiccup if you please. Sons of Pantagruel, gently let your hip-hurrahing sink, Be your manly accents clouded, half with sorrow, half with drink! Lightly to the sofa pillow lift his head from off the floor; See, how calm he sleeps, unconscious as the deadest nail in door! Widely o'er the earth I've wandered; where the drink most freely flowed, I have ever reeled the foremost, foremost to the beaker strode. Deep in shady Cider Cellars I have dreamed o'er heavy wet, By the fountains of Damascus I have quaffed the rich sherbet, Regal Montepulciano drained beneath its native rock, On Johannis' sunny mountain frequent hiccuped o'er my hock; I have bathed in butts of Xeres deeper than did e'er Monsoon, Sangaree'd with bearded Tartars in the Mountains of the Moon; In beer-swilling Copenhagen I have drunk your Danesman blind, I have kept my feet in Jena, when each bursch to earth declined; Glass for glass, in fierce Jamaica, I have shared the planter's rum. Drunk with Highland dhuine-wassails, till each gibbering Gael grew dumb; But a stouter, bolder drinker--one that loved his liquor more-- Never yet did I encounter than our friend upon the floor! Yet the best of us are mortal, we to weakness all are heir, He has fallen who rarely staggered--let the rest of us beware! We shall leave him as we found him,--lying where his manhood fell, 'Mong the trophies of the revel, for he took his tipple well. Better 'twere we loosed his neckcloth, laid his throat and bosom bare, Pulled his Hobies off, and turned his toes to taste the breezy air. Throw the sofa cover o'er him, dim the flaring of the gas, Calmly, calmly let him slumber, and, as by the bar we pass, We shall bid that thoughtful waiter place beside him, near and handy, Large supplies of soda-water, tumblers bottomed well with brandy, So, when waking, he shall drain them, with that deathless thirst of his,-- Clinging to the hand that smote him, like a good 'un as he is! The Death of Duval. BY W--- H--- A---TH, ESQ. ["Methinks I see him already in the cart, sweeter and more lovely tha
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   >>  



Top keywords:

liquor

 
foremost
 

staggered

 

beware

 

tipple

 

Better

 

trophies

 

manhood

 
rarely
 

wassails


dhuine

 

gibbering

 

Highland

 

Jamaica

 

fierce

 
shared
 

planter

 

stouter

 
mortal
 

weakness


fallen

 

friend

 

drinker

 

bolder

 
encounter
 

turned

 

Clinging

 

thirst

 

deathless

 

tumblers


bottomed

 

brandy

 
waking
 
Methinks
 

sweeter

 

lovely

 

supplies

 

breezy

 

Hobies

 

Pulled


neckcloth

 
loosed
 

throat

 

flaring

 

waiter

 

thoughtful

 

calmly

 

Calmly

 
slumber
 
Pantagruel