Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TOBACCO, by WALT MASON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TOBACCO, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Tobacco is a harmful weed, the learned
Last Line: Means an early tomb.
Subject(s): Cancer (disease); Fire; Health; Lungs; Smoking; Tobacco; Pipes; Cigars; Cigarettes


TOBACCO is a harmful weed, the learned physicians are agreed. It stains the
teeth and bites the tongue, and injures larynx, heart and lung, it spoils the
whiskers, taints the breath, and sends man to an early death, and when he's laid

beneath the sod the legal lights divide his wad. And yet if this punk weed were

barred, we'd find the sledding pretty hard, for in one thing tobacco's blest, in

that it soothes the savage breast. And many husbands are serene, who would be
quarrelsome and mean, indulging oft in mental gripes, if you should take away
their pipes. When I am smoking I'm as mild as any gent that ever smiled, and
folks who hear me chirp and bleat, remark, "His temper is so sweet!" But when,
impelled by aims sublime, I cut out smoking for a time, I'm sore as any growling

bear that mumbles soupbones in its lair, and all the women in the shack are
hoping I will soon get back to blowing smoke around my room, e'en though it
means an early tomb.





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