ECCENTRIC AND NONDESCRIPT.
THE JOVIAL PRIEST'S CONFESSION.
TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN OF WALTER DE MAPES,
I DEVISE to end my days—in a tavern drinking,
May some Christian hold for me--the glass when I am shrinking,
That the cherubim may cry-when they see me sinking,
God be merciful to a soul-of this gentleman's way of thinking.
A glass of wine amazingly—enlighteneth one's intervals;
'Tis wings bedewed with nectar-that fly up to supernals;
Bottles cracked in taverns-have much the sweeter kernels,
Than the sups allowed to us-in the college journals.
Every one by nature hath-a mold which he was cast in ;
I happen to be one of those-who never could write fasting;
By a single little boy-I should be surpass'd in
Writing so I'd just as lief-be buried; tomb'd and grass'd in.
Every one by nature hath-a gift too, a dotation:
I, when I make verses-do get the inspiration
Of the very best of wine-that comes into the nation:
It maketh sermons to astound-for edification.
Just as liquor floweth good-floweth forth my lay so;
But I must moreover eat—or I could not say so;
Naught it availeth inwardly-should I write all day so;
But with God's grace after meat—I beat Ovidius Naso.
Neither is there given to me--prophetic animation,
Unless when I have eat and drank-yea, ev'n to saturation;
Then in my upper story-hath Bacchus domination,
And Phoebus rushes into me, and beggareth all relation.