The New Hampshire Gazette And Historical Chronicle

On Excessive Drinking.

Drank; I link'd it not :'Twas rage! twas haste!
An airy scene of transient joys!
In vain I tried, that the inspiring bowl
Would banish sorrow, and enlarge the soul.
To the late revel, and protracted feast,
Wild dreams succeeded. and disordered rest :
And as. at dawn of morn. fair reason's light
Brake thro' the fumes and phantoms of the night,
What had been said ? I ask'd my soul.what done?
How flow'd our mirth ? and when the source begun ?
Perhaps the jest that charm'd the nightly crowd,
And made the jovial table laugh so loud,
To some false notion ow'd its poor pretence,
To an ambiguous word's perverted sense,
To a wild sonnet. or a wanton air.
Offence and torture to the sober ear
Perhaps, alas ! the pleasing stream was bro't
From this man's error, from another's Fault;
From topicks which good nature would forget ;
And prudence mention with the last regret.
And yet unnumber'd ills, that lie unseen
In the pernicious draught ; the word obscene.
Or harsh, which once elanc'd must ever fly
Irrevocable; the last reply
Seed of severe distrust and fierce debate ;
What we should shun, and what we ought to hate.
Add too, the blood impoverish'd and the course
Of health suppress'd by wine's continued force.
Unhappy man ! whom sorrow thus und rage
To diff'rent ills alternately engage,
Who drinks alas! but to forget; nor sees,
That melancholy lotb. Severe disease,
Mem'ry confus'd, and in-terrupted thought :
Death's harbingers lies latent in the draught:
And in the flow'rs that wreathe sparkling bowl.
Fiend adders hiss, and pois'nous serpents roll.