Do you know/have any quotes or sayings in praise of the restorative leaf?
Share them!
Here is Calverley's Ode to Tobacco.. (such it is)
thou, who, when fears attack,
bidst them avaunt, and black
care, at the horseman's back
perching, unseatest;
sweet when the morn is gray,
sweet when they've cleared away
lunch; and at close of day
possibly sweetest:
i have a liking old
for thee, though manifold
stories, i know, are told.
not to thy credit:
how one (or two at most)
drops make a cat a ghost—
useless except to roast—
doctors have said it:
how they who use fusees
all grow by slow degrees
brainless as chimpanzees,
meagre as lizards;
go mad, and beat their wives;
plunge (after shocking lives)
razors and carving-knives
into their gizzards.
confound such knavish tricks!
yet know i five or six
smokers who freely mix
still with their neighbours;
jones – (who, i'm glad to say,
asked leave of mrs. j. ——)
daily absorbs a clay
after his labours.
cats may have had their goose
cooked by tobacco-juice;
still why deny its use
thoughtfully taken?
we're not as tabbies are:
smith, take a fresh cigar!
jones, the tobacco-jar!
HERE'S TO THEE, BACON!
Share them!
Here is Calverley's Ode to Tobacco.. (such it is)
CALVERLEY'S
ODE TO TOBACCO
(written at cambridge in 1862)
A TRIBUTE TO THIS FIRM
ODE TO TOBACCO
(written at cambridge in 1862)
A TRIBUTE TO THIS FIRM
thou, who, when fears attack,
bidst them avaunt, and black
care, at the horseman's back
perching, unseatest;
sweet when the morn is gray,
sweet when they've cleared away
lunch; and at close of day
possibly sweetest:
i have a liking old
for thee, though manifold
stories, i know, are told.
not to thy credit:
how one (or two at most)
drops make a cat a ghost—
useless except to roast—
doctors have said it:
how they who use fusees
all grow by slow degrees
brainless as chimpanzees,
meagre as lizards;
go mad, and beat their wives;
plunge (after shocking lives)
razors and carving-knives
into their gizzards.
confound such knavish tricks!
yet know i five or six
smokers who freely mix
still with their neighbours;
jones – (who, i'm glad to say,
asked leave of mrs. j. ——)
daily absorbs a clay
after his labours.
cats may have had their goose
cooked by tobacco-juice;
still why deny its use
thoughtfully taken?
we're not as tabbies are:
smith, take a fresh cigar!
jones, the tobacco-jar!
HERE'S TO THEE, BACON!