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From A Letter To The Rev. Mr. Newton, Late Rector Of St. Mary Woolnoth.

By William Cowper

Topics: classic

Says the pipe to the snuff-box, I cant understand     What the ladies and gentlemen see in your face,     That you are in fashion all over the land,     And I am so much fallen into disgrace.     Do but see what a pretty contemplative air     I give to the companypray do but note em     You would think that the wise men of Greece were all there,     Or at least would suppose them the wise men of Gotham.     My breath is as sweet as the breath of blown roses,     While you are a nuisance whereer you appear;     There is nothing but snivelling and blowing of noses,     Such a noise as turns any mans stomach to hear.     Then, lifting his lid in a delicate way,     And opening his mouth with a smile quite engaging,     The box in reply was heard plainly to say,     What a silly dispute is this we are waging!     If you have a little of merit to claim,     You may thank the sweet-smelling Virginian weed,     And I, if I seem to deserve any blame,     The before-mentiond drug in apology plead.     Thus neither the praise nor the blame is our own,     No room for a sneer, much less a cachinnus,     We are vehicles, not of tobacco alone,     But of anything else they may choose to put in us.

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"Says the pipe to the snuff-box, I cant understand..."

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Author:William Cowper

"Says the pipe to the snuff-box, I cant understand..." by William Cowper

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

William Cowper

About William Cowper

William Cowper (1731–1800) was an English poet and hymnodist whose work bridges the gap between the Augustan age and Romanticism. His poems "The Task" and "John Gilpin" were enormously popular, and his hymn "God Moves in a Mysterious Way" remains widely sung.

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