Poem by Thomas Blacklock

On Punch

An Epigram

Hence! restless care, and low design;
Hence! foreign compliments and wine:
Let gen’rous Britons, brave and free,
Still boast their Punch and honesty.
Life is a bumper fill’d by fate,
And we the guests who share the treat;
Where strong, insipid, sharp and sweet,
Each other duly temp’ring meet.
A while with joy the scene is crown’d;
A while the catch and toast go round:
And, when the full carouse is o’er,
Death puffs the lights, and shuts the door.
Say then, Physicians of each kind,
Who cure the body, or the mind;
What harm in drinking can there be,
Since Punch and life so well agree?

1. Song. Inscribed to a Friend. In imitation of Shenstone
2. An Hymn to Divine Love. In Imitation of Spenser
3. A Pastoral Song
4. A Letter from Thomas Blacklock to the Author, Respecting Burns
5. An Epitaph, on a Favourite Lap-Dog

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