| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | | | Drinking | | By Abraham Cowley (1618–1667) |
| | (Anacreontiques)
THE THIRSTY earth soaks up the rain, | |
| And drinks, and gapes for drink again. | |
| The plants suck in the earth, and are | |
| With constant drinking fresh and fair. | |
| The sea itself, which one would think | 5 |
| Should have but little need of drink, | |
| Drinks twice ten thousand rivers up, | |
| So fill’d that they o’erflow the cup. | |
| The busy sun (and one would guess | |
| By ’s drunken fiery face no less) | 10 |
| Drinks up the sea, and, when he’s done, | |
| The moon and stars drink up the sun. | |
| They drink and dance by their own light, | |
| They drink and revel all the night. | |
| Nothing in Nature’s sober found, | 15 |
| But an eternal health goes round. | |
| Fill up the bowl then, fill it high, | |
| Fill all the glasses there, for why | |
| Should every creature drink but I, | |
| Why, man of morals, tell me why? | 20 | | | |
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