English Poetry I: From Chaucer to Gray.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 249. Drinking |
| | | Abraham Cowley (1618–1667) |
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| 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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