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Bacchanalia

or A Description of a Drunken Club. A Poem [by Charles Darby]

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One is All Manhood; talks of nothing else,
But Swords, and Guns, and Forts, and Cittadels;
Sieges, and Fights by Sea and Land,
And with a Gravity Censorian,
'Twixt generous scorn, and pity; doth condemn
What the World calls Exploit, or Stratagem.
Alas! your Dutch-Fights, or Blakes Tunis Knacks,
What were they all, but Squibs and Cracks?
Throw Eighty Eight in,
'Twas but a meer Bear-baiting.
Cales Fight was but a Flutter,
And Great Lepanto, fam'd of yore,
To a true Sea-Fight, was no more,
(Although Historique Coxcombs make a Splutter)
Than shooting Ducks in Pond, or stabbing of an Otter.