TOBACCO

This Indian weed, that once did grow

On fair Virginia's fertile plain,

From whence it came — again may go,

To please some happier swain:

Of all the plants that Nature yields

This, least beloved, shall shun my fields.

In evil hour I first essayed

To chew this vile forbidden leaf,

When, half ashamed, and half afraid,

I touched, and tasted — to my grief:

Ah me! the more I was forbid,

The more I wished to take a quid.

But when I smoaked, in thought profound,

And raised the spiral circle high,

My heart grew sick, my head turned round —

And what can all this mean, ( said I ) —

Tobacco surely was designed

To poison, and destroy mankind.

Unhappy they, whom choice, or fate

Inclines to prize this bitter weed;

Perpetual source of female hate;

On which no beast — but man will feed;

That sinks my heart, and turns my head,

And sends me, reeling, home to bed!