Gin-Twist Poem

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A poem about Gin Twist.

William Maginn 1793–1842 Maginn, W.

A Twist-imony in favour of Gin-twist.

  • 1 At one in the morn, as I went staggering home,
  • 2 With nothing at all in my hand but my fist,
  • 3 At the end of the street a good youth I did meet,
  • 4 Who asked me to join in a jug of gin-twist.
  • 5 “Though 'tis late,” I replied, “and I'm muggy beside,
  • 6 Yet an offer like this I could never resist;
  • 7 So let's waddle away, sans a moment's delay,
  • 8 And in style we'll demolish your jug of gin-twist.”
  • 9 The friends of the grape may boast of rich Cape,
  • 10 Hock, Claret, Madeira, or Lachryma Christ,
  • 11 But this muzzle of mine was never so fine
  • 12 As to value them more than a jug of gin-twist.
  • 13 The people of Nantz, in the kingdom of France,
  • 14 Bright brandy they brew, liquor not to be hissed;
  • 15 It may do as a dram, but 'tis not worth a damn,
  • 16 When watered, compared with a jug of gin-twist.
  • 17 Antigua, Jamaica, they certainly make a
  • 18 Grand species of rum, which should ne'er be dismissed;
  • 19 It is splendid as grog, but never, you dog,
  • 20 Esteem it as punch, like a jug of gin-twist.
  • 21 Ye bailies of Glasgow! Wise men of the West!
  • 22 Without your rum bowls you'd look certainly tristes;
  • 23 Yet I laugh when I'm told that liquor so cold
  • 24 Is as good as a foaming hot jug of gin-twist.
  • 25 The bog-trotting Teagues in clear whisky delight,
  • 26 Preferring potsheen to all drinks that exist;
  • 27 I grieve, ne'ertheless, that it does not possess
  • 28 The juniper smack of a jug of gin-twist.
  • 29 Farintosh and Glenlivet, I hear, are the boast
  • 30 Of those breechesless heroes, the Sons of the Mist;
  • 31 But may I go choke if that villainous smoke
  • 32 I'd name in a day with a jug of gin-twist.
  • 33 Yet the Celtic I love, and should join them, by Jove!
  • 34 Though Glengarry should vow I'd no right to enlist;
  • 35 For that chief, do you see, I'd not care a bawbee,
  • 36 If strongly entrenched o'er a jug of gin-twist.
  • 37 One rule they lay down is the reason, I own,
  • 38 Why from joining their plaided array I desist;
  • 39 Because they declare that no one shall wear
  • 40 Of breeches a pair, o'er their jugs of gin-twist.
  • 41 This is plainly absurd, I give you my word,
  • 42 Of this bare-rumped reg'lation I ne'er saw the gist;
  • 43 In my gay corduroys, can't these philabeg boys
  • 44 Suffer me to get drunk o'er my jug of gin-twist?
  • 45 In India they smack a liquor called rack,
  • 46 Which I never quaffed (at least that I wist);
  • 47 I'm told 'tis like tow in its taste, and, if so,
  • 48 Very different stuff from a jug of gin-twist.
  • 49 As for porter and ale—'fore Gad, I turn pale,
  • 50 When people on such things as these can insist;
  • 51 They may do for dull clods, but, by all of the gods!
  • 52 They are hog-wash when matched with a jug of gin-twist.
  • 53 Why tea we import I could never conceive;
  • 54 To the Mandarin folk, to be sure, it brings grist;
  • 55 But in our western soils the spirits it spoils,
  • 56 While to heaven they are raised by a jug of gin-twist.
  • 57 Look at Hazlitt and Hunt, most unfortunate pair!
  • 58 Black and blue from the kicks of a stern satirist;
  • 59 But would Mynheer Izzard once trouble their gizzard,
  • 60 If bohea they exchanged for a jug of gin-twist?
  • 61 Leibnitz held that this earth was the first of all worlds,
  • 62 And no wonder the buck was a firm optimist;
  • 63 For 'twas always his use, as a proof to adduce
  • 64 Of the truth of his doctrine, a jug of gin-twist.
  • 65 It cures all the vapours and mulligrub capers;
  • 66 It makes you like Howard, the philanthro-pist;
  • 67 Woe, trouble, and pain, that bother your brain,
  • 68 Are banished out clean by a jug of gin-twist.
  • 69 You turn up your nose at all of your foes,
  • 70 Abuse you, traduce you, they may if they list;
  • 71 The lawyers, I'm sure, would look very poor,
  • 72 If their clients would stick to their jugs of gin-twist.
  • 73 There's Leslie, my friend, who went ramstam to law
  • 74 Because Petre had styled him a poor Hebraist;
  • 75 And you see how the jury, in spite of his fury,
  • 76 Gave him comfort far less than one jug of gin-twist.
  • 77 And therefore, I guess, sir, the celebre Professor,
  • 78 Even though culpably quizzed as a mere sciolist,
  • 79 Would have found it much meeter to have laughed at old Petre,
  • 80 And got drunk with Kit North o'er a jug of gin-twist.
  • 81 Its medical virtues a jug of gin-twist.
  • 82 By its magical aid a toper is made,
  • 83 Like Brockden Brown's hero, a ventriloquist;
  • 84 For my belly cries out, with an audible shout,
  • 85 “Fill up every chink with a jug of gin-twist.”
  • 86 Geologers all, great, middling, and small,
  • 87 Whether fiery Plutonian or wet Neptunist,
  • 88 Most gladly, it seems, seek proofs for their schemes
  • 89 In the water, or spirit, of a jug of gin-twist.
  • 90 These grubbers of ground (whom God may confound!),
  • 91 Forgetting transition, trap, hornblende, or schist,
  • 92 And all other sorts, think only of quartz—
  • 93 I mean, of the quarts in a jug of gin-twist.
  • 94 Though two dozen of verse I've contrived to rehearse,
  • 95 Yet still I can sing like a true melodist;
  • 96 For they are but asses who think that Parnassus
  • 97 In spirit surpasses a jug of gin-twist.
  • 98 It makes you to speak Dutch, Latin, or Greek;
  • 99 Even learning Chinese very much 'twould assist:
  • 100 I'll discourse you in Hebrew, provided that ye brew
  • 101 A most Massorethical jug of gin-twist.
  • 102 When its amiable stream, all enveloped in steam,
  • 103 Is dashed to and fro by a vigorous wrist,
  • 104 How sweet a cascade every moment is made
  • 105 By the artist who fashions a jug of gin-twist!
  • 106 Sweet stream! There is none but delights in thy flow,
  • 107 Save that vagabond villain, the Whig atheist;
  • 108 For done was the job for his patron, Sir Bob,
  • 109 When he dared to wage war 'gainst a jug of gin-twist.
  • 110 Don't think by its name, from Geneva it came,
  • 111 The sour little source of the Kirk Calvinist—
  • 112 A fig for Jack Calvin! My processes alvine
  • 113 Are much more rejoiced by a jug of gin-twist.
  • 114 Let the Scotsman delight in malice and spite,
  • 115 The black-legs at Brooks's in hazard or whist;
  • 116 Tom Dibdin in books, Micky Taylor in cooks:
  • 117 My pleasure is fixed in a jug of gin-twist.
  • 118 Though the point of my nose grow as red as a rose
  • 119 Or rival in hue a superb amethyst,
  • 120 Yet no matter for that, I tell you 'tis flat,
  • 121 I shall still take a pull at a jug of gin-twist.
  • 122 There was old Cleobulus, who, meaning to fool us,
  • 123 Gave out for his saying,
  • 124 But he'd never keep measure, if he had but the pleasure
  • 125 Of washing his throat with a jug of gin-twist.
  • 126 There are dandies and blockheads, who vapour and boast
  • 127 Of the favours of girls they never have kissed;
  • 128 That is not the thing, and therefore, by jing!
  • 129 I kiss while I'm praising my jug of gin-twist.
  • 130 While over the glass I should be an ass
  • 131 To make moping love like a dull Platonist;
  • 132 That ne'er was my fashion: I swear that my passion
  • 133 Is as hot as itself for a jug of gin-twist.
  • 134 Although it is time to finish my rhyme,
  • 135 Yet the subject's so sweet I can scarcely desist;
  • 136 While its grateful perfume is delighting the room,
  • 137 How can I be mute o'er a jug of gin-twist?
  • 138 Yet since I've made out, without any doubt,
  • 139 Of its merits and glories a flourishing list,
  • 140 Let us end with a toast, which we cherish the most:
  • 141 Here's “God save the King!” in a glass of gin-twist.
  • 142 Then I bade him good-night in a most jolly plight,
  • 143 But I'm sorry to say that my footing I missed;
  • 144 All the stairs I fell down, so I battered my crown,
  • 145 And got two black eyes from a jug of gin-twist.


Miscellanies (1885): Prose and Verse. By William Maginn. Edited by R. W. Montagu. Two Volumes

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