Explore "The Sporting Spirit (Rhymes for the Times)" by Harry Graham on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
['The emotional surprise and the unexpected suddenness in the / rise of game require great accuracy, rapidity, and nerve / control, and experience is in my favour that there are some who / are improved in these essentials of good shooting by a little / alcohol at lunch. ' -- Dr. T. CLAYE SHAW in the _Times_.]
It once was my habit to miss ev'ry rabbit / At which I might happen to fire; / I wasted each cartridge despatching some partridge / To die in a neighbouring shire. / By nature ungainly, I struggled, but vainly, / A duck or a woodcock to kill, / And cut a poor figure when pressing the trigger / With far greater vigour than skill, / Until, all at once, I discovered a tonic, / And now (so to speak) my adroitness is chronic!