Classic Poem

" Well, neighbour, now you are a brick!
Come, try some more. "
" Neighbour, I 'm bursting quite. " — " No humbug, quick —
One plateful let me pour:
Real fishsoup, see what soup, done to a t . " —
" But that 's my third. " — " Hush! here we count nor plates nor glasses —
With a good appetite all passes:
Digestion 's good for sleep, you see.
'T is tempting, 't is a very jelly;
Look at the amber that its surface coats,
Indulge, old chum, unto thy heart's content!
See there, 't is bream, here sterlet choice that floats!
That liver there for thee was meant.
Another spoonful! — Wife, thy reverence make! —
One small one more, and for my sake! "
Thus feasted Damian once his old friend Neddy;
No time to breathe or talk, kept to it steady.
Down Neddy's face had long been trickling rain,
But, yielding unto fate, his plate he hands again;
And, summoning his strength remaining,
He swallows all. — " Now, that a friend I call, "
Exulting Damian cries; " why on excuses fall
To spare my cheer? Then once more show your training! "
Then hapless Neddy, who
Doted on fish, at this aggression new,
Seizing his coat,
Stick, and capote,
Ran straight and swiftly to his own street door,
And ne'er set foot in Damian's parlour more.

Good author, happy thou in gift beyond dispute;
But, if thou hast not learned yet to be mute,
Boring unwilling ears to suit
Nor time nor place, be sure — thy verse or prose
More sickening e'en than Damian's fishsoup grows.