Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume IX. Tragedy: Humor. 1904. | | | | Humorous Poems: II. Miscellaneous | | Ode to Tobacco | | Charles Stuart Calverley (1831–1884) |
| | | THOU who, when fears attack, | |
| Bid’st them avaunt, and Black | |
| Care, at the horseman’s back | |
| Perching, unseatest; | |
| Sweet when the morn is gray; | 5 |
| Sweet, when they ’ve cleared away | |
| Lunch; and at close of day | |
| Possibly sweetest: | |
| |
| I have a liking old | |
| For thee, though manifold | 10 |
| 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— | 15 |
| Doctors have said it: | |
| |
| How they who use fusees | |
| All grow by slow degrees | |
| Brainless as chimpanzees, | |
| Meagre as lizards; | 20 |
| Go mad, and beat their wives; | |
| Plunge (after shocking lives) | |
| Razors and carving-knives | |
| Into their gizzards. | |
| |
| Confound such knavish tricks! | 25 |
| Yet know I five or six | |
| Smokers who freely mix | |
| Still with their neighbors; | |
| Jones—(who, I ’m glad to say, | |
| Asked leave of Mrs. J.)— | 30 |
| Daily absorbs a clay | |
| After his labors. | |
| |
| Cats may have had their goose | |
| Cooked by tobacco-juice; | |
| Still why deny its use | 35 |
| Thoughtfully taken? | |
| We ’re not as tabbies are: | |
| Smith, take a fresh cigar! | |
| Jones, the tobacco-jar! | |
| Here ’s to thee, Bacon! | 40 | | | |
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