| |
| DRINK! drink! to whom shall we drink? | |
| To a friend or a mistress? Come, let me think! | |
| To those who are absent, or those who are here? | |
| To the dead that we loved, or the living still dear? | |
| Alas! when I look, I find none of the last! | 5 |
| The present is barren,—let ’s drink to the past! | |
| |
| Come! here ’s to the girl with a voice sweet and low, | |
| The eye all of fire and the bosom of snow, | |
| Who erewhile, in the days of my youth that are fled, | |
| Once slept on my bosom, and pillowed my head! | 10 |
| Would you know where to find such a delicate prize? | |
| Go seek in you church-yard, for there she lies. | |
| |
| And here ’s to the friend, the one friend of my youth, | |
| With a head full of genius, a heart full of truth, | |
| Who traveled with me in the sunshine of life, | 15 |
| And stood by my side in its peace and its strife! | |
| Would you know where to seek for a blessing so rare? | |
| Go drag the lone sea, you may find him there. | |
| |
| And here ’s to a brace of twin cherubs of mine, | |
| With hearts like their mother’s, as pure as this wine, | 20 |
| Who came but to see the first act of the play, | |
| Grew tired of the scene, and then both went away. | |
| Would you know where this brace of bright cherubs have hied? | |
| Go seek them in heaven, for there they abide. | |
| |
| A bumper, my boys! to a gray-headed pair, | 25 |
| Who watched o’er my childhood with tenderest care. | |
| God bless them, and keep them, and may they look down | |
| On the head of their son, without tear, sigh, or frown! | |
| Would you know whom I drink to? go seek ’mid the dead, | |
| You will find both their names on the stone at their head. | 30 |
| |
| And here ’s—but alas! the good wine is no more, | |
| The bottle is emptied of all its bright store; | |
| Like those we have toasted, its spirit is fled, | |
| And nothing is left of the light that it shed. | |
| Then, a bumper of tears, boys! the banquet here ends. | 35 |
| With a health to our dead, since we ’ve no living friends. | |
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