Life is but a span of horses
One is Age, the other Prime;
Up and down the hill our course is;
“Go in, ponies, make your time.”
Boyhood flies the whip of pleasure,
Youthful folly gives a stroke;
Manhood goads them at his leisure;
“Let ’em rip--they’re tough as oak.”
“Hi, yo! there: the stakes we’ll pocket;
To the winds let them be sent:
Time: 2 40--whip in socket:
Give ’em string and let ’em went.”
On the sunny road to fifty,
Prime is drown’d in Lethe’s stream;
Age is left old and unthrifty;
Life then proves a “one horse team.”
Age jogs on, grows quite unsteady,
Reels and slackens in his pace,
Kicks the bucket, always ready,
Gives it up--Death wins the race.
Go it while You’re Young.
Money’s scarce they say, and very well we know it,
Then surely the best way, is while you’re young to go it;
The banks are all flat broke, their rags are good for naught,
The specie’s all bespoke, then certainly you ought to--
_Go it_ while you’re young,
For when you’re old you _can’t_,
Let scandal hold her tongue
And bid dull care avaunt.
Now single men get wives, the States may soldiers need,
There’s plenty to be had, if parties are agreed;
Learn them all to shoot, to them it will be sport,
Say you’re fathers fought before, then certainly you ought to--
_Go it_ while you’re young, &c.
Youth’s the time for pleasure, life is but a span,
Gayety’s a treasure, seize it while you can,
Old men couldn’t go it, were they to be hung,
Their looks and actions show it--then
_Go it_ while you’re young, &c.