|
|
||
|
A Tankard of Ale |
||
|
|
||
|
Lest that provoke to quarrels too,
Which wine itself enough can do.
Draw me no constellations there,
No Ram, nor Bull, nor Dog, nor Bear,
Nor any of that monstrous fry
Of animals, which stock the sky;
For what are stars to my design ?
Stars which I, when drunk, outshine,
Outshone by every drop of wine :
I lack no pole-star on the brink,
To guide in the wide Sea of Drink ;
But would for ever there be tost,
And wish no haven, seek no coast.
Yet, gentle artist, if thou'lt try
Thy skill, then draw me (let me see),
Draw me first a spreading vine,
Make its arms the bowl entwine,
With kind embraces, such as I
Twist about my loving she.
Let its boughs o'erspread above
Scenes of drinking, scenes of love :
Draw next the patron of that tree,
Draw Bacchus, and soft Cupid by :
Draw them both in toping shapes ;
Their temples crown'd with clustered grapes;
Make them lean against the cup,
As 'twere to keep the figures up ;
And when their reeli...; forms I view,
I'll think them drunk, and be so too.
The gods shall my examples be,
The gods thus drunk in effigy.
40 |
||
|
|
||