for his own children, Lade can get easy cash to better enjoy his life. The "slaves of thrift" would refer to having to pinch his pennies and live frugally, which he most probably has had to do perviously, perhaps surviving off an allowance, certainlyNOT from working.

The image Johnson next presents is one of Lade seeking out the company of many women, anyone who lives as he, without a care or sense of responsibility. The reference to, "Here the gamester light and jolly, / There the lender grave and sly" is describing a man at the gaming (gambling) tables, throwing his money away, while the moneylender, silent and sneakily (sounding almost like Death), waits in the "wings" until the gambler has lost all his money.

(It was not unusual for "gambling addicts" of that day to lose all their money and then work through their holdings—land and houses—putting them up for collateral with the moneylenders. It was also not unusual for a member of the nobility, having no further resources, to take his own life.)

Johnson advises...

Wealth, Sir John, was made to wander,
Let it wander as it will...

...into the pockets of the [horse] jockey or pimp ("pander"). Lacking any sense (it would seem), Lade has no regard for the true value of owning land or a home.

At the end of the poem, Johnson lets the reader know that Lade has a guardian (who has obviously protected his holdings for him until his "majority"), and a mother—both of whom will futilely advise him against his wasteful spending. He counsels Lade to ignore them both.

The last line, "You can hang or drown at last" probably refers to suicide. (Had he been sent to debtor's prison he would not have been executed, as a dead prisoner who owed too much money to pay back was of little use. Ironically, however, remaining in prison also provided the prisoner with no way to find a way to settle his debts.)

Johnson by no means supports Lade's flagrant dissipation; however, he will, no doubt, have seen this kind of behavior before. For Johnson, and other more mature and responsible members of English society at the time, Lade's behavior would have been seen not only as "bad form" or "common," but also tragic.

I would doubt Johnson expected Lade to pay attention to this piece, but perhaps Johnson hoped it would make a difference in another young heir's life.

Regarding "To Sir John Lade, on His Coming of Age" (‘A Short Song of Congratulation’) by Samuel Johnson, when looking for a connection between form and content, my first inclination is to look at the "sound" of the poem. (Remember, poems were always meant to be read aloud so as to hear the many devices the poet used in the poem's construction.)

Looking to the meter (rhythm) of the poem is the first important element in studying the poem's "sound" because it is so obvious. The meter is...

...a rhythm of accented and unaccented syllables which are organized into patterns called feet.

...and... ...trochaic meter is a foot consisting of an accented and unaccented syllable. "To Sir John Lade, on His Coming of Age" then is written with a trochaic meter. The poem also has a set rhyme scheme. A rhyme scheme is... ...the pattern of rhyme used in a poem, generally indicated by matching lowercase letters to show which lines rhyme. The letter "a" notes the first line, and all other lines rhyming with the first line. The first line that does not rhyme with the first, or "a" line, and all others that rhyme with this line, is noted by the letter "b", and so on. Johnson's rhyme scheme follows the rhyming pattern of ABAB. In other words, the first and third lines rhyme, and the second and fourth lines rhyme; this pattern continues throughout the poem. The rhyming pattern also provides a sense of movement. After analyzing what I hear when I read the poem, I look then to the poem's content. Johnson tells the story of Sir John Lade, a young man who has inherited a seemingly large fortune, whereupon he systematically goes around dropping cash in one place and then another, moving from one form of "dissipation" to the next. While the meter gives a sense of his movement from one kind of entertainment to another—as Lade continues losing cash all the while—the meter of the poem also gives the sense of chopping: the cutting up his assets, such as houses and land, which (as Johnson notes) mean nothing more than wet or dry land to Lade. It also gives the sense of chunks of cash being squandered here and there, disappearing forever in someone else's willing hands. It is in these ways that I feel Johnson uses the structure of his poem to support the content of his poem. (This is, by the way, a wonderful poem, not only for its content, but also its form.)

Samuel's Johnson poem, "To Sir John Lade, On His Coming of Age" can be more easily understood when broken down stanza by stanza.

In poetry, [a] stanza refers to a grouping of lines, set off by a space, that usually has a set pattern of meter and rhyme.

The meter is a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables; this particular poem is written in a trochaic meter, where stress is placed on the first syllable of each pair.

Johnson's work is an example of lyric poetry.

...a short poem with one speaker (not necessarily the poet) who expresses thought and feeling.

The first stanza is addressed to Sir John Lade, and has been written to "celebrate" his twenty-first birthday which has followed a long and "lingering" year of anticipation on Lade's part.

The second stanza relates that Lade is no longer a minor (under twenty-one); he is now legally eligible to mortgage and sell his land, may live as wildly as he wants, and no longer must be thrifty (frugal) with his money, which he probably had to do before turning twenty-one.

In the third stanza, Johnson notes that Lade may call upon the company of any number of different women (anyone who chooses to live as carefree as he), to spend without thought the inheritance (seemingly a sizable one) that he has finally received, left to him by his grandfather. The line "...show the spirit of an heir" may simply refer to the way an heir might casually spend that which he did not have to work hard to earn and/or protect.

The fourth stanza is about things in life that "prey" on "vice and folly" (immoral behavior and foolishness), which are joyful to see money flying around. And while the "gamester" (gambler) is having a wonderful time, the moneylender sits quietly by, waiting for the foolish gambler to lose all his money.

Johnson, in stanza five, observes that money was made to "be spread around," and encourages Lade to do so. He should spend money on horse racing (jockey) and prostitutes ("pander" meaning "pimp"), allowing them to take their share of his wealth.

Stanza six explains that when a blade ("jaunty young man") goes out "partying," with a full wallet and high spirits, land and houses are nothing more than piles of dirt—of little importance whether wet or dry. (The inference is that a wiser man would see the value of houses and land, as investments, worth a great deal more a piece of ground.)

Samuel Johnson's seventh and final stanza notes that the young heir may have a guardian or mother who will try to point out the danger of wasting his money, but that Lade should scorn their advice. Johnson ends his poem by stating that the young man will drown or hang in the end. This is a dire note: essentially, once the young man has spent all his money and sold all his holdings (including land and houses) in order to pay his gambling debts, he will probably commit suicide by hanging or drowning. (This was not an uncommon occurrence for members of the aristocracy when confronted by the inevitability of living not only beneath the means to which they were accustomed, but most likely in poverty.)

Samuel Johnson is writing with a sense of irony here. He does not support Lade's lifestyle, though I doubt this was written as a warning—most likely Lade would have ignored it. However, perhaps Johnson hoped to catch the attention of another young man in a similar situation; certainly Lade's behavior would not have been unusual at that time.