Classic Poem

What need we take care for Platonical rules,
Or the precepts of Aristotle;
Those that think to find learning in books are but fools,
True philosophy lies in the bottle:
And the mind that's confined to the modes of the schools
Ne'er arrives to the height of a pottle:
Let the sages, of our ages, keep a-talking of our walking,
Demurely, whilst we that are wiser
Do abhor all that's moral in Cato and Plato,
And Seneca talks like a sizer:
Then let full bowls, full bottles and bowls be hurled,
That our jollity may be completer:
For man, tho' he be but a very little world,
Must be drowned as well as the greater.

We will drink till our cheeks are as starred as the skies,
Let the pale-coloured student flout us;
Till our noses, like comets, set fire on our eyes,
And we bear the horizon about us.
And if ale makes no fall, then our heels shall divine
What the stars are a-doing without us:
Let Lilly go tell ye of thunders and wonders,
And astrologers all divine;
Let Booker be a looker in our natures and features,
He'll find nothing but claret in mine!
Then let full bowls, full bottles and bowls be hurled,
That our jollity may be completer:
For man, tho' he be but a very little world,
Must be drowned as well as the greater.