I
THE Indian weed witherèd quite; | |
| Green at morn, cut down at night; | |
| Shows thy decay: all flesh is hay: | |
| Thus think, then drink Tobacco. | |
| |
| And when the smoke ascends on high, | 5 |
| Think thou behold'st the vanity | |
| Of worldly stuff, gone with a puff: | |
| Thus think, then drink Tobacco. | |
| |
| But when the pipe grows foul within, | |
| Think of thy soul defiled with sin, | 10 |
| And that the fire doth it require: | |
| Thus think, then drink Tobacco. | |
| |
| The ashes, that are left behind, | |
| May serve to put thee still in mind | |
| That unto dust return thou must: | 15 |
| Thus think, then drink Tobacco. | |
| |
II
WHEN as the chill Charokko blows, | |
| And Winter tells a heavy tale; | |
| When pyes and daws and rooks and crows | |
| Sit cursing of the frosts and snows; | 20 |
| Then give me ale. | |
| |
| Ale in a Saxon rumkin then, | |
| Such as will make grimalkin prate; | |
| Bids valour burgeon in tall men, | |
| Quickens the poet's wit and pen, | 25 |
| Despises fate. | |
| |
| Ale, that the absent battle fights, | |
| And frames the march of Swedish drum, | |
| Disputes with princes, laws, and rights, | |
| What 's done and past tells mortal wights, | 30 |
| And what 's to come. | |
| |
| Ale, that the plowman's heart up-keeps | |
| And equals it with tyrants' thrones, | |
| That wipes the eye that over-weeps, | |
| And lulls in sure and dainty sleeps | 35 |
| Th' o'er-wearied bones. | |
| |
| Grandchild of Ceres, Bacchus' daughter, | |
| Wine's emulous neighbour, though but stale, | |
| Ennobling all the nymphs of water, | |
| And filling each man's heart with laughter— | 40 |
| Ha! give me ale! | |
