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GROANS OF THE TANKARD.
27
"Whose moping sons no jovial orgies keep;
"Where evening brings no summons but to sleep;
"No Carnival is even Christmas here,
"And one long Lent involves the meagre year.
"Bear me, ye powers! to some more genial scene,
"Where on soft cushions lolls the gouty Dean,
"Or rosy Prebend with cherubic face,
"With double chin, and paunch of portly grace,
"Who lulled in downy slumbers shall agree
"To own no inspiration but from me.
"Or to some spacious mansion, Gothic, old,
"Where Comus' sprightly train their vigils hold;
"There oft exhausted, and replenished oft,
"O let me still supply the' eternal draught,
"Till Care within the deep abyss be drowned,
"And Thought grows giddy at the vast profound!"
"Where evening brings no summons but to sleep;
"No Carnival is even Christmas here,
"And one long Lent involves the meagre year.
"Bear me, ye powers! to some more genial scene,
"Where on soft cushions lolls the gouty Dean,
"Or rosy Prebend with cherubic face,
"With double chin, and paunch of portly grace,
"Who lulled in downy slumbers shall agree
"To own no inspiration but from me.
"Or to some spacious mansion, Gothic, old,
"Where Comus' sprightly train their vigils hold;
"There oft exhausted, and replenished oft,
"O let me still supply the' eternal draught,
"Till Care within the deep abyss be drowned,
"And Thought grows giddy at the vast profound!"
More had the goblet spoke; but lo! appears
An ancient Sibyl, furrowed o'er with years.
An ancient Sibyl, furrowed o'er with years.
