Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, EULOGY ON THE TIMES, by THOMAS GREEN FESSENDEN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

EULOGY ON THE TIMES, by                    
First Line: Let poets scrawl satirick rhymes
Last Line: The foremost in society.
Subject(s): United States - Civilization


Let poets scrawl satirick rhymes
And sketch the follies of the times
With much caricaturing;
But I, a bon-ton bard, declare
A set of slanderers they are,
E'en past a Job's enduring.

Let crabbed cynicks snarl away
And pious parsons preach and pray
Against the vices reigning;
That mankind are so wicked grown,
Morality is scarcely known,
And true religion waning.

Societies, who vice suppress,
May make a rumpus; ne'ertheless,
Ours is the best of ages;
Such hum-drum folks our fathers were,
They could no more with us compare
Than Hottentots with sages.

It puts the poet in a pet
To think of them, a vulgar set;
But we, thank God, are quality;
For we have found, this eighteenth century,
What ne'er was known before, I'll venture ye,—
Religion's no reality!

Tom Paine and Godwin both can tell
That there is no such thing as hell!—
A doctrine mighty pleasant;
Your old-wives' tales of a hereafter
Are things for ridicule and laughter
While we enjoy the present!

We've naught to do but frisk about
At midnight ball and Sunday rout
And Bacchanalian revel;
To gamble, drink and live at ease,
Our great and noble selves to please,
Nor care for man nor devil.

In these good times, with little pains
And scarce a penny-worth of brains
A man, with great propriety—
With some small risk of being hung—
May cut a pretty dash among
The foremost in society.





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