Classic Poem

There happen'd to live the next door to each other,
An officer bold and a puritan brother;
Each kept a domestic , tho' not at board-wages ,
Two notable gossips , hung out in their cages,
Two parrots their railing well taught to repeat,
What they heard in the house they proclaim'd in the street .
Poor soul , quoth the one; t'other call'd rogue and whore ,
One canted and whin'd ; t'other bully'd and swore .
Blood and thunder confound you, the reprobate cries;
Have mercy upon me, the other replies.
Thus by rote , pro and con, still their scoldings ran high,
To the no small diversion of all that pass'd by;
And this , for our moral 'tis proper to mention,
Is often the whole of a party-contention .