Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume IX. Tragedy: Humor. 1904. | | | | Humorous Poems: II. Miscellaneous | | Gluggity Glug | | George Colman the Younger (1762–1836) |
| | From “The Myrtle and the Vine”
A JOLLY fat friar loved liquor good store, | |
| And he had drunk stoutly at supper; | |
| He mounted his horse in the night at the door, | |
| And sat with his face to the crupper: | |
| “Some rogue,” quoth the friar, “quite dead to remorse, | 5 |
| Some thief, whom a halter will throttle, | |
| Some scoundrel has cut off the head of my horse, | |
| While I was engaged at the bottle, | |
| Which went gluggity, gluggity—glug—glug—glug.” | |
| |
| The tail of the steed pointed south on the dale, | 10 |
| ’T was the friar’s road home, straight and level; | |
| But, when spurred, a horse follows his nose, not his tail, | |
| So he scampered due north, like a devil: | |
| “This new mode of docking,” the friar then said, | |
| “I perceive doesn’t make a horse trot ill; | 15 |
| And ’t is cheap,—for he never can eat off his head | |
| While I am engaged at the bottle, | |
| Which goes gluggity, gluggity—glug—glug—glug.” | |
| |
| The steed made a stop,—in a pond he had got, | |
| He was rather for drinking than grazing; | 20 |
| Quoth the friar, “’T is strange headless horses should trot, | |
| But to drink with their tails is amazing!” | |
| Turning round to see whence this phenomenon rose, | |
| In the pond fell this son of a pottle; | |
| Quoth he, “The head ’s found, for I ’m under his nose,— | 25 |
| I wish I were over a bottle, | |
| Which goes gluggity, gluggity—glug—glug—glug!” | | | | |
|
|
