[analphilosopher] Keith Burgess-Jackson: Ambrose Bierce

[analphilosopher at lists.powerblogs.com]

Posted by Keith Burgess-Jackson:
Ambrose Bierce
http://www.analphilosopher.com/posts/1137541209.shtml


   Grape, n.

     Hail noble fruit!--by Homer sung,
     Anacreon and Khayyam;
     Thy praise is ever on the tongue
     Of better men than I am.

     The lyre in my hand has never swept,
     The song I cannot offer:
     My humbler service pray accept--
     I'll help to kill the scoffer.

     The water-drinkers and the cranks
     Who load their skins with liquor--
     I'll gladly bear their belly-tanks
     And tap them with my sticker.

     Fill up, fill up, for wisdom cools
     When e'er we let the wine rest.
     Here's death to Prohibition's fools,
     And every kind of vine-pest!
     Jamrach Holobom.

   (Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, c. 1911)