Song of the Debauchee

Five years I'll endure,
Five years, I am sure;
So let me plunge on in my folly.
How now? Not five years?
Oh well, vanish, fears!
For while I endure, I'll he jolly.

One year will I view
Sin's form and pursue
The unstable pathway of folly.
How now? Less than one?
Yet, till all is done,
I'll drink and rejoice and be jolly.

Though only one half
Of a year I may laugh,
Or less, as I try to he jolly, Still on will I dash
To meet the grand crash
That shall end the career of my folly.

But what do I say?
Am I happy or gay?
Ah, no; I no longer am jolly.
My laughter is vain,
My joys have been slain
In this mad, blighting onrush of folly.

^___John Edward Everett