HAPPY the man, who free as air, By nuptial ties no longer bound, With dearest wife lays every care Low under ground. While he with fops, sips tea with toasts; Airy, and gay, in his attire; Whose pride, in age, and winter's frost, Can yield him fire. Blest, who can unconcernedly find Days, hours, and years, glide soft away; Who jokes, and laughs, with vacant mind, Though hairs grow grey. No sleep by night -- dancing and drink Together mixt, sweet recreation! And making love, which witlings think Gives reputation. Thus let me live, thus dance through life, thus, unconnected, let me die; Steal from the world, without a wife To LAUGH -- or CRY! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WHEN WILL LOVE COME? by PAKENHAM THOMAS BEATTY THE YEAR'S AWAKENING by THOMAS HARDY TO A LOCOMOTIVE IN WINTER by WALT WHITMAN CEREMONIAL ODE; INTENDED FOR A UNIVERSITY by LASCELLES ABERCROMBIE SPRING'S UNFOLDING by IRENE ARCHER THE REPLY OF Q. HORATIUS FLACCUS TO A ROMAN 'ROUND-ROBIN' by ALFRED AUSTIN |