Explore "The Song of Right and Wrong" by G.K. Chesterton on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Feast on wine or fast on water, / And your honour shall stand sure, / God Almighty's son and daughter / He the valiant, she the pure; / If an angel out of heaven / Brings you other things to drink, / Thank him for his kind attentions, / Go and pour them down the sink.
Tea is like the East he grows in, / A great yellow Mandarin / With urbanity of manner / And unconsciousness of sin; / All the women, like a harem, / At his pig-tail troop along; / And, like all the East he grows in, / He is Poison when he's strong.
Tea, although an Oriental, / Is a gentleman at least; / Cocoa is a cad and coward, / Cocoa is a vulgar beast, / Cocoa is a dull, disloyal, / Lying, crawling cad and clown, / And may very well be grateful / To the fool that takes him down.
As for all the windy waters, / They were rained like tempests down / When good drink had been dishonoured / By the tipplers of the town; / When red wine had brought red ruin / And the death-dance of our times, / Heaven sent us Soda Water / As a torment for our crimes.