In Praise of Tobacco
- Thread starter Scottmi
- Start date
tobacco you've been a constant companion how I hope to never be without. Lovers come and go but a pipe will not leave you for another smoker one beautiful morning.
Kipling said: "... a woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a Smoke."
I feel the other way around about that, but while I like cigars I don't get the same joy out of them I do a pipe.
I’d recommend the books “Lyra Nicotiana” and “Pipe and Pouch,” which collect dozens and dozens of older poems and epigrams about tobacco, cigars, and pipes. The books themselves were originally published in the late 1800s/early 1900s, but they can be found in used bookshops both IRL and online.
I don’t how accurate this is, but I once read that, prior to 1900, there were more books and pamphlets published on tobacco/smoking than any other subject—excepting religion. (Of course, that’s both pro and con.) There is a massive amount of content out there that isn’t—and isn’t ever likely to be—available electronically, if folks are willing to go searching for it.
There are, of course, many quotes from The Lord of the Rings such as this one:
“After some time he felt for his pipe. It was not broken, and that was something. Then he felt for his pouch, and there was some tobacco in it, and that was something more. Then he felt for matches and he could not find any at all, and that shattered his hopes completely.”
Yes! My favorite is a poem written by Rev. Ralph Erskine titled: Smoking Spiritualized. Here is one of the stanzas:
This Indian weed now wither’d quite,
Though green at noon, cut down at night,
Shows thy decay; All flesh is hay.
Thus think, and smoke tobacco.
The pipe so lily-like and weak,
Does thus thy mortal state bespeak.
Thou are ev’n such, Gone with a touch.
Thus think, and smoke tobacco.
And when the pipe grows foul within,
Think on thy soul defil’d with sin;
For then the fire, It does require.
Thus think, and smoke tobacco.
Tobacco Jokes for Smoking Folks, 1888 has some fun gems.. including this one:
"It is said that there isn't so much difference between a meerschaum pipe and a convict after all. One is the scum of the sea, and the other is the scum of the earth!"
"It is said that there isn't so much difference between a meerschaum pipe and a convict after all. One is the scum of the sea, and the other is the scum of the earth!"
Love the new terms I'm learning here, too. like "..terbakker micksher.." i'm gonna use that!Tobacco Jokes for Smoking Folks, 1888 has some fun gems.. including this one:
"It is said that there isn't so much difference between a meerschaum pipe and a convict after all. One is the scum of the sea, and the other is the scum of the earth!"
“How can I tell that the soothing influence of tobacco upon my nervous system may not have enabled me to comport myself with calm and courtesy in some awkward personal encounter or negotiation, or carried me serenely through some critical hours of anxious waiting? How can I tell that my temper would have been as sweet or my companionship as agreeable if I had abjured from my youth the goddess Nicotine?" - Winston Churchill
