Whiskey

Whiskey written by William Henry Davies

New Poems (1907)

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Whiskey, thou blessed heaven in the brain,
O that the belly should revolt,
To make a hell of afterpain,
And prove thy virtue was a fault!

Did, ever poet seek his bed
With a sweet phrase upon his lips
Smiling - as I laid down my head,
Pleased after sundry whiskey sips?

I pitied all the world: alas
That no poor nobodies came near,
To give to them my shirt and shoes,
And bid them be of goodly cheer.

A blessèd heaven was in the brain;
But ere came morn the belly turned
And kicked up hell's delight in pain -
This tongue went dry, this throat it burned.

Oh dear! Oh dear! to think last night
The merriest man on earth was I,
And that I should awake this morn,
To cough and groan, to heave and sigh!

This work is in the public domain in countries where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less.