These ten commandments you'll observe. If drink you'd master, and not serve. I First, study where to draw the line: If eight will answer, why take nine? II Of your day's being learn the state: Sometimes three go as far as eight. III Dilute your liquor always; or Your stomach has to go to war. IV Sit down and take your time; for know The only pleasure 's drinking so. V Talk, jest, and laugh: in this way pass The merry fumes of many a glass. VI Eat frequently; with spells of food Three times the drink can be withstood. VII When your head reels, then stop at once, Or else you'll be both sick and dunce. VIII Stay up till calm; you'll feel next day Much better than the other way, IX Avoid hold-overs: there's a road May bring your back too heavy a load. X And, if with drinking you must brawl, For love of Man, don't drink at all! Experience, bought with years and pain, In these brief maxims speaks again. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A DEATH IN THE DESERT by ROBERT BROWNING A FOREST HYMN by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT BILLY IN THE DARBIES, FR. BILLY BUDD by HERMAN MELVILLE THE SOLITARY WOODSMAN by CHARLES GEORGE DOUGLAS ROBERTS THE PRINCESS; A MEDLEY by ALFRED TENNYSON THE COLLEGE, 1917 by HAMILTON FISH ARMSTRONG THE IVORY GATE; AN UNFINISHED DRAFT by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES |