  MY first is given and received, a blessing and a bane; You may buy it at the station, get it gratis on the train; You may find it in a puppet-booth or in a banquet-hall, And I think perhaps the Roman is the noblest of them all. ’Twas in my second, long ago, brave men put out to sea; And at a garden-fÊte I saw my second flowing free; And I leaned against my second of strong and solid oak, But as I grasped my second, alas, it dropped and broke. My whole at Christmas seasons with holly we entwine; Upon the old Whig taverns ’t was painted as a sign; But in its depths lurk dangers, from its floating cakes of ice To its balmy breath of sugar-cane, its tropic fruits and spice. |
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