Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, NECESSARY OBSERVATIONS: 35TH PRECEPT, by THOMAS RANDOLPH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

NECESSARY OBSERVATIONS: 35TH PRECEPT, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Fly drunkenness, whose vile incontinence
Last Line: I rather count a hogshead than a man.
Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics


Fly drunkenness, whose vile incontinence
Takes both away the reason and the sense.
Till with Circaean cups thy mind's possess'd,
Leaves to be man, and wholly turns a beast.
Think, whilst thou swallowest the capacious bowl,
Thou lett'st in seas to wrack and drown the soul.
That hell is open to remembrance call,
And think how subject drunkards are to fall.
Consider how it soon destroys the grace
Of human shape, spoiling the beauteous face:
Puffing the cheeks, blearing the curious eye,
Studding the face with vicious heraldry.
What pearls and rubies doth the wine disclose,
Making the purse poor to enrich the nose?
How does it nurse disease, infect the heart,
Drawing some sickness into every part!
The stomach overcloy'd, wanting a vent,
Doth up again resend her excrement.
And then (O, see what too much wine can do!)
The very soul being drunk spues secrets too.
The lungs corrupted breathe contagious air,
Belching up fumes that unconcocted are.
The brain o'erwarm'd (losing her sweet repose)
Doth purge her filthy ordure through the nose.
The veins do boil, glutted with vicious food,
And quickly fevers the distemper'd blood.
The belly swells, the foot can hardly stand,
Lam'd with the gout: the palsy shakes the hand,
And through the flesh sick waters sinking in,
Do bladder-like puff up the dropsied skin.
It weaks the brain, it spoils the memory,
Hasting on age and wilful poverty.
It drowns thy better parts, making thy name
To foes a laughter, to thy friends a shame.
'Tis virtue's poison, and the bane of trust,
The match of wrath, the fuel unto lust.
Quite leave this vice, and turn not to't again,
Upon presumption of a stronger brain.
For he that holds more wine than others can,
I rather count a hogshead than a man.





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