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...WHEN HE WOULD HAVE HIS VERSES READ by ROBERT HERRICK HE WROTE THE HISTORY BOOK,' IT SAID by MARIANNE MOORE A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM by EDGAR ALLAN POE THE CONQUERED BANNER by ABRAM JOSEPH RYAN GOD'S DETERMINATIONS: THE JOY OF CHURCH FELLOWSHIP RIGHTLY ATTENDED by EDWARD TAYLOR THE RUINS OF CORINTH by ANTIPATER OF SIDON A RIDDLE by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |