Page:Poems - Southey (1799) volume 2.djvu/50

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38

The board is spread. With bloated paunch, and eyeFat swoln, and legs whose monstrous size disgracedThe human form divine, their caterer,Hight Gluttony, set forth the smoaking feast.And by his side came on a brother form,With fiery cheek of purple hue, and redAnd scurfy-white, mix'd motley; his gross bulk,Like some huge hogshead shapen'd, as applied.Him had antiquity with mystic ritesAdor'd, to him the sons of Greece, and thineImperial Rome, on many an altar pour'dThe victim blood, with godlike titles graced,Bacchus, or Dionusus; son of Jove,Deem'd falsely, for from Folly's ideot formHe sprung, what time Madness, with furious hand,Seiz'd on the laughing female. At one birthShe brought the brethren, menial here, aboveReigning with sway supreme, and oft they holdHigh revels: mid the Monastery's gloom,Thy palace Gluttony, and oft to thee
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