I. GOOD friends, pray listen, if you please, To Pleasure's licensed preacher; Hold fast to Liberty and Ease; So says your reverend teacher. To laugh at Care, be gay and free, The precepts I advise: I'm bald because I'm sage, you see; So listen to the wise! II. Good friends, when Care assails a man, To vex his soul and body, I think it much the wisest plan To drown it -- in a toddy! Nay, not too much! -- the glass should be Of very dainty size: I'm bald because I'm sage, you see; So listen to the wise! III. Good friends, these hints will stand the test, And shouldn't be neglected; But what's the good of all the rest, If Beauty is rejected? Young Love, true Love, must ever be The richest earthly prize: I'm bald because I'm sage, you see; So listen to the wise! IV. Good friends, believe me, only so We save Life's truest treasures; By just condensing, as they flow, Youth's evanescent pleasures. My sermon's done; who lists to me The power of Fate defies: I'm bald because I'm sage, you see; So listen to the wise! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE ODYSSEY: THE GARDENS OF ALCINOUS by HOMER THE SONG OF HIAWATHA: HIAWATHA AND MUDJEKEEWIS by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW TWO RED ROSES ACROSS THE MOON by WILLIAM MORRIS (1834-1896) IN THE GARDEN AT SWAINSTON (IN MEMORIAM - SIR JOHN SIMEON) by ALFRED TENNYSON TO A DYING CLASS by ANGELO PHILIP BERTOCCI |