 | Poems by Henry Septimus Sutton |  |
235
THE DRINK DRAGON.
There is a murderous Thing abroad,
What need to tell its name?
Is it not written everwhere
In deeds of sin and shame?
A Dragon huge this monster is;
Its claws are many and strong,
What living thing it sets them on
Shall not last overlong.
Its eyelids are like doors of vaults
Set over against each other;
Its cruel eyes would never shut
From one year's end to another,
Only at given, law-set times
They are forced to droop and blink;
But ever it chews and champs its chain,
This greedy Dragon of Drink.
Now where shall we the weapon find
That must this monster slay?
We thank you, noble men of Maine,
For ye have shown the way.
What need to tell its name?
Is it not written everwhere
In deeds of sin and shame?
A Dragon huge this monster is;
Its claws are many and strong,
What living thing it sets them on
Shall not last overlong.
Its eyelids are like doors of vaults
Set over against each other;
Its cruel eyes would never shut
From one year's end to another,
Only at given, law-set times
They are forced to droop and blink;
But ever it chews and champs its chain,
This greedy Dragon of Drink.
Now where shall we the weapon find
That must this monster slay?
We thank you, noble men of Maine,
For ye have shown the way.
236
A woman slinks along the street;
Her face is hungry and thin;
The gaps in her rags, if pieced, are but pieced
With patches of shivering skin.
Would you believe it? A happier bride
There never was than she
On the day when her lover said ‘I will’
Neath the church's old roof-tree.
Yes, and his true intent it was
To love and cherish her then,
But the Dragon of Drink, though it goes to church,
Has never said Amen.
‘I will;’—the words were strong and clear;
—Now lies the sot in the gutter,
And scarcely a thing's to be understood
Of aught that he can utter.
How shall we make him a man again,
His wife's defence and stay?
We thank you, noble men of Maine,
For ye have shown the way.
Her face is hungry and thin;
The gaps in her rags, if pieced, are but pieced
With patches of shivering skin.
Would you believe it? A happier bride
There never was than she
On the day when her lover said ‘I will’
Neath the church's old roof-tree.
Yes, and his true intent it was
To love and cherish her then,
But the Dragon of Drink, though it goes to church,
Has never said Amen.
‘I will;’—the words were strong and clear;
—Now lies the sot in the gutter,
And scarcely a thing's to be understood
Of aught that he can utter.
How shall we make him a man again,
His wife's defence and stay?
We thank you, noble men of Maine,
For ye have shown the way.
How sweet to watch yon little child
With curly locks that twist
About the neck and cheek that seem
Made chiefly to be kissed!
O guard the precious human life
Within that tender frame!
You would not have it come to harm
For anything we could name.
Alas! that child has ceased to breathe;
It perished yesterday;—
The little thing was scalded to death
In midst of its childish play;—
Or, the hard cart-wheel crush'd down its head
And mixed the brain with the mire;
Or, it died in flames, while its mother's throat
Was inflamed with a slower fire.
Oh how shall we deal with that which takes
The very babes for a prey?
We thank you, noble men of Maine,
For ye have shown the way.
With curly locks that twist
About the neck and cheek that seem
Made chiefly to be kissed!
237
Within that tender frame!
You would not have it come to harm
For anything we could name.
Alas! that child has ceased to breathe;
It perished yesterday;—
The little thing was scalded to death
In midst of its childish play;—
Or, the hard cart-wheel crush'd down its head
And mixed the brain with the mire;
Or, it died in flames, while its mother's throat
Was inflamed with a slower fire.
Oh how shall we deal with that which takes
The very babes for a prey?
We thank you, noble men of Maine,
For ye have shown the way.
How sweet to watch yon little child
With curly locks that twist
About the neck and cheek that seem
Made chiefly to be kissed!
O guard the precious human life
Within that tender frame!
You would not have it come to harm
For anything we could name.
Alas! that child has ceased to breathe;
It perished yesterday;—
The little thing was scalded to death
In midst of its childish play;—
Or, the hard cart-wheel crush'd down its head
And mixed the brain with the mire;
Or, it died in flames, while its mother's throat
Was inflamed with a slower fire.
Oh how shall we deal with that which takes
The very babes for a prey?
We thank you, noble men of Maine,
For ye have shown the way.
With curly locks that twist
About the neck and cheek that seem
Made chiefly to be kissed!
237
Within that tender frame!
You would not have it come to harm
For anything we could name.
Alas! that child has ceased to breathe;
It perished yesterday;—
The little thing was scalded to death
In midst of its childish play;—
Or, the hard cart-wheel crush'd down its head
And mixed the brain with the mire;
Or, it died in flames, while its mother's throat
Was inflamed with a slower fire.
Oh how shall we deal with that which takes
The very babes for a prey?
We thank you, noble men of Maine,
For ye have shown the way.
She stands by his side, no lawful bride;—
All her heart's love misplaced;—
No manly thought was in his soul
That the drink has not effaced.
Alas for love not soaring above
Earth's miserable mire!
And alas for honour foully cast
In passion's lake of fire!
O fallen, fallen evermore,
And lost her honest fame!
Ah, mother dear, ah, father dear,
She brings you sorrow and shame!
'Twas Drink that lent him power to blight;—
Drink drugg'd her conscience dim,
And bound her soul on an altar cursed,
A sacrifice to him.
How shall we stop such wrongs and shames,
Committed day by day?
We thank you, noble men of Maine,
For ye have shown the way.
All her heart's love misplaced;—
No manly thought was in his soul
That the drink has not effaced.
Alas for love not soaring above
Earth's miserable mire!
And alas for honour foully cast
In passion's lake of fire!
238
And lost her honest fame!
Ah, mother dear, ah, father dear,
She brings you sorrow and shame!
'Twas Drink that lent him power to blight;—
Drink drugg'd her conscience dim,
And bound her soul on an altar cursed,
A sacrifice to him.
How shall we stop such wrongs and shames,
Committed day by day?
We thank you, noble men of Maine,
For ye have shown the way.
This cell is tenanted by one
Who broke a house in the night;
This other holds one heavy-eyed,
Who slew a man in a fight;
Here is a lad not ten years old,—
Vice led, he followed its trail;
But if they who bred him had shunn'd the Drink,
He would not have been in jail.
Yonder's the thing that bruised his wife
Within an inch of her life;
On this bed lies the gasping wretch
Who opened his throat with a knife.
There's not one here on whom the law
Has lock'd the prison-door,
Whose doom had not gone out of the mouth
Of the Dragon of Drink before.
O brothers, let us up and cure
This monster-ill of the day!
We thank the noble men of Maine,
That they have shown the way.
Who broke a house in the night;
This other holds one heavy-eyed,
Who slew a man in a fight;
Here is a lad not ten years old,—
Vice led, he followed its trail;
But if they who bred him had shunn'd the Drink,
He would not have been in jail.
Yonder's the thing that bruised his wife
Within an inch of her life;
On this bed lies the gasping wretch
Who opened his throat with a knife.
239
Has lock'd the prison-door,
Whose doom had not gone out of the mouth
Of the Dragon of Drink before.
O brothers, let us up and cure
This monster-ill of the day!
We thank the noble men of Maine,
That they have shown the way.
1854.
| Poems by Henry Septimus Sutton | |