The Bench of Boors
In bed I muse on Tenier’s boors,
Embrowned and beery losels all:
A wakeful brain
Elaborates pain:
Within low doors the slugs of boors
Laze and yawn and doze again.
In dreams they doze, the drowsy boors,
Their hazy hovel warm and small:
Thought’s ampler bound
But chill is found:
Within low doors the basking boors
Snugly hug the ember-mound.
Sleepless, I see the slumberous boors
Their blurred eyes blink, their eyelids fall:
Thought’s eager sight
Aches—overbright!
Within low doors the boozy boors
Cat-naps take in pipe-bowl light.
- Herman Melville (American novelist and poet, 1819-1891)
