| Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900. |
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| Samuel Johnson. 1709–1784 |
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| 450. One-and-Twenty |
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| LONG-EXPECTED one-and-twenty, | |
| Ling'ring year, at length is flown: | |
| Pride and pleasure, pomp and plenty, | |
| Great . . . . . . ., are now your own. | |
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| Loosen'd from the minor's tether, | 5 |
| Free to mortgage or to sell, | |
| Wild as wind, and light as feather, | |
| Bid the sons of thrift farewell. | |
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| Call the Betsies, Kates, and Jennies, | |
| All the names that banish care; | 10 |
| Lavish of your grandsire's guineas, | |
| Show the spirit of an heir. | |
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| All that prey on vice and folly | |
| Joy to see their quarry fly: | |
| There the gamester, light and jolly, | 15 |
| There the lender, grave and sly. | |
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| Wealth, my lad, was made to wander, | |
| Let it wander as it will; | |
| Call the jockey, call the pander, | |
| Bid them come and take their fill. | 20 |
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| When the bonny blade carouses, | |
| Pockets full, and spirits high— | |
| What are acres? What are houses? | |
| Only dirt, or wet or dry. | |
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| Should the guardian friend or mother | 25 |
| Tell the woes of wilful waste, | |
| Scorn their counsel, scorn their pother;— | |
| You can hang or drown at last! | |
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