< Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu
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SAMUEL JOHNSON

460 One-and-Twenty

'ONG-EXPECTED one-and-twenty, Lingering year, at length is flown* Pride and pleasure, pomp and plenty, Great ****** *, are now your own.

��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.

Call the Betsies, Kates, and Jennies, All the names that banish care;

Lavish of your grandsire's guineas, Show the spirit of an heir.

All that prey on vice and folly

Joy to sec their quarry fly There the gamester, light and jolly,

There the lender, giave and sly.

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.

When the bonny blade carouses, Pockets full, and spirits high

What are acres' 1 What are houses? Only dirt, or wet or dry.

�� �

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