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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SMOKE; A POST-PORANDIAL POEM, by JAMES BRANDER MATTHEWS Poet's Biography
First Line: When you're weary, night or day
Last Line: Melancholy, end in smoke.
Alternate Author Name(s): Matthews, Brander
Subject(s): Smoking; Tobacco; Pipes; Cigars; Cigarettes
First Line: When you're weary, night or day
Last Line: Melancholy, end in smoke.
Alternate Author Name(s): Matthews, Brander
Subject(s): Smoking; Tobacco; Pipes; Cigars; Cigarettes
When you're weary, night or day,
Smoke a cheery yard of clay!
When I'm smoking, jesting, joking,
There is no king half so gay.
Lying lazy, far from crowds,
Weaving hazy mental shrouds;
Watching furling smoke up whirling,
Softly curling to the clouds.
Minds are lifted from mere mirth;
Thoughts then sifted have more worth.
I am thinking, as the shrinking
Sunset, sinking, fires the earth.
Thoughts that sages may have had,
In their pages, grave and glad:
Thoughts thus seething, like smoke wreathing,
Sadness breathing, make me sad.
Cigar ended—twilight broke—
Night descended—thus I spoke:
All that's jolly, wisdom, folly,
Melancholy, end in smoke.
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