Literature Network » Samuel Johnson » Poetical Works » One and Twenty

One and Twenty

  1 Long-expected one-and-twenty,
      Lingering year, at length is flown:
    Pride and pleasure, pomp and plenty,
      Great * * *, are now your own.
  2 Loosen'd from the minor's tether,
      Free to mortgage or to sell,
    Wild as wind, and light as feather,
      Bid the sons of thrift farewell.
  3 Call the Betsies, Kates, and Jennies,
      All the names that banish care;
    Lavish of your grandsire's guineas,
      Show the spirit of an heir.
  4 All that prey on vice and folly
      Joy to see their quarry fly:
    There the gamester, light and jolly;
      There the lender, grave and sly.
  5 Wealth, my lad, was made to wander,
      Let it wander as it will;
    Call the jockey, call the pander,
      Bid them come and take their fill.
  6 When the bonny blade carouses,
      Pockets full, and spirits high--
    What are acres? what are houses?
      Only dirt, or wet, or dry.
  7 Should the guardian friend or mother
      Tell the woes of wilful waste:
    Scorn their counsel, scorn their pother,
      You can hang or drown at last.

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