NRLF 737 - f- ANACREONTICS BY CARL BENSON " Hans Breitmann preached a sermon and quoted vot Lutner said, Wer liebt nicht IVein, Weib und Gesang, is a shtupid wooden-head. Der bleibt ein Narr sein Lebenlang and goes to de Tuyfel ven dead." Hans Breitmanrts Sermon. NEW YORK PRIVATELY PRINTED 1872 IOAN STACK SO MUCH OF THIS BOOK AS HAS NOT BEEN ALREADY APPROPRIATED TO OTHER GOOD MEN AND TRUE, IS HEREBY DEDICATED TO MY JOLLY FRIEND HANS BREITMANN. 2BH CONTENTS. THE DRINKER S APOLOGY FORESTIER 9. THE PERTINACIOUS TOPER . . 6 THAT PUNCH 18 To J. T. J. J 29 LAGER 34 GERACE Rosso 39 CEDENBURG 43 WINE AND WISDOM . * 5 2 HOCHHEIMER . . PUNCH SONG . 59 RAUZAN MARGAUX . 01 STEIN WEIN 66 THE SONS OF THE SORROWFUL, OR THE LIQUOR QUESTION . 69 AD FONTIUM NYMPHAS / o ANN^E CONCUBITUS. * . 74 THE DRINKER S APOLOGY. (FROM THE FRENCH.) /^OME now! If I drink, where s the crime? Can you tell ? Look round us ! All Nature is drinking as well. The Earth drinks the dew, and the Sun, floating free, Stoops to drink of the wave from the cup of the sea. The tree, as he plunges his roots in the ground, Through numberless mouths drinks the torrent profound. All drink but man only, that Scion divine^ 7 ANACREONTICS. While the others drink water, knows how to drink wine ; And, measureless tippler, can boast, he alone, Having once drunk enough, that he still can drink on. 8 FORESTIER. 4 SPECIMEN OF THE PUFF POETICAL. (1851.) T HAVE a friend, one P. C. K , Who selleth the best of all Champagne. Champagne wine is good, I wot, Whether the weather be cold or hot; When Boreas blows, And you re almost froze, From the tip of your nose To the tips of your toes, Then how your heart glows As the beverage flows That makes you see everything COULEUR DE ROSE 9 ANACREONTICS. Or in the dog-days, When the sun s fierce rays Set all in a blaze, And your blood seems to boil, And your butter turns oil, And the freshest of chops and steaks will spoil, And your face grows brown, And your collars drop down, And there isn t a soul that you know left in town, Save in Wall street, where Brokers, by way of preparing For the still hotter temperature whither they re faring, Keep shaving and cornering, bulling and bear ing* (If the Editor shrinks From this stanza, and thinks Sucn an insinuation might possibly stop all his 10 ANACREONTICS. Circulation in this our commercial metropolis. Why then he may just Leave it out and be blessed, Or fill up with asterisks as he likes best) And your poor tired muse Beseechingly wooes The balmiest breezes of eve to come at her In short, under every stage of thermometer All times and all seasons are good for Champagne, Especially that of P. C. K. Some years ago there was going on A great deal of talk about Dit Brimont And after that again years a few There was still more talk about Cordon Bleu And tis now the fashion to talk about Mumm (The very name says, in its praises be dumb) ANACREONTICS. And some about Pleidseck will prate for a week (it Might hide very long before I would seek it) And your grave Bostonian so stately of pace, W-th second hand English writ in his face, Of whom you may say without any libel, he Claims to be master of omne scibile And in every thing to be men s guider Will talk to you half an hour about S chr eider ; At one time Bacchanals all confest That Brighams Sillery was the best, It used to gladden me when I spied His grape leaf gilt on a bottle s side But pallida mors who lets none escape Without leave stalked away with our grape; And a very good fellow well known to me Hangs out a wine that they call N. B. If any one s cross or troubled with spleen, he 12 ANACREONTICS. Will find it a capital Nota dene But I m sure there never was any Cham pagne Like the Forestier brand of P. C. K. And I remember it happened to me When I was a Cantab at Trinity ; A friend who lived in the land of the Gaul Sent me some wine that was rather tall. The name I was stupid enough to forget, But the smack of the juice I remember yet. Twas a creamy wine of roseate hue Like rubies dissolved in ambrosial dew, And we brought in good fellows not a few To carry a rich Symposium through. Oh twas a goodly sight to see The mirth of that revelling company ! ANACREONTICS. The Celts that meet about the Park so notedly irascible So prominent in everything that s make-a-man- jack-ass-able, Could not have made more noise than we and scarce have been more riotous ; We got a going such a pace no mortal man could quiet us ; For one rose up and speechified and one sat down and sang, Ancther laughed the while he quaffed until the old roof rang, And one \vas quoting Addison, and one was quoting Rabelais, And one declaring Locksley Hall was by no means a shabby lay 14 ANACREONTICS. And one far gone, with something twixt a hic cup and a cough in his Throat, lay along ejaculating scraps of Aristoph anes. Now this was remarkably tall Champagne, But nothing to that of P. C. K. And if you would know Where you must go To get the wine That is so divine, Whenever you feel like a fit of the blues Take up your hat and put your shoes (Or boots, as the case may be) on your feet, And go down to 80 Beaver Street, In there is the office of P. C. K , And there you will find the best Champagne. 15 THE PERTINACIOUS TOPER. FROM THE GERMAN. TN coolest cellar here I rest, Near a full cask of liquor, Right glad at heart, since of the best I for myself can pick here. The butler puts the spigot in, Obedient to my winking, Gives me the cup; I hold it up, I m drinking, drinking, drinking! A demon plagues me, thirst to wit, And so, to scare the fellow, I take my glass and into it 16 ANACREONTICS. Let flow the Rhine-wine mellow. The whole earth smiles upon me then, With ruddy, rosy blinking ; I couldn t hurt the worst of men, While drinking, drinking, drinking ! But ah ! my thirst grows fiercer still With every flask I ope here, Which is th inevitable ill Of every genuine toper. Yet this my comfort, when at last From chair to floor I m sinking, I always kept my purpose fast Of drinking, drinking, drinking ! 17 THA T PUNCH/// (February n, 1865.) r I ^HEY who aspire to carry higher the stand ard art-ideal, If circumspect, will not neglect some phases of the real; And if you ask the bard to show by an exam ple terse it, he Appeals to what he used to know of Cambridge University ; Where, of the dainty feasters all, and supper- giving fellows, 18 ANACREONTICS. There were none more aesthetical than Hallam or than Ellis,* Tis thus, the logical may think to obviate all strictures, Our Johnston brews the best of drink, and buys the best of pictures. When Noah safely reached dry ground, he couldn t bear a minute To drink the flood that sinners drowned, with all the sinners in it ; So, making for his weary crew a curious trans formation, * Two good men and true, who have " gone to the majori ty " (abierunt ad p lures]. Henry Fitzmaurice Hallam was the second son of the historian ; Robert Leslie Ellis, senior wrang ler of his year, and one of the editors of Bacon. They were both worthy disciples of Brillat-Savarin, and Ellis had, more over, a most un-English dexterity in dress. ANACREONTICS. A current* from the grape he drew, a marvellous libation ; And tippling up his new-found wine grew more and more ecstatical, Until it forced him to recline in posture prob lematical. Thus No As drink became no ease, and brought him to disaster, While Johnston s liquor only frees our tongues to talk the faster. When Noah grew too old and staid to follow out his mission, * All the punlings are italicized, to prevent mistakes. Swinton of the Times, who is not easily permeable by the com mon domestic joke, once advised me to put my jests into Ro man capitals, not considering .them capital, but possibly inti mating that they were rum-uns. 20 ANACREONTICS. Young Bacchus started in the trade, and set up opposition ; He gave his foes no end of fits, and gave his friends their wishes, Made women tear their king to bits, and turned men into fishes ; Raised Ariadne to the skies, and Verted* all the East, But Johnston s doings more surprise the sharers of his feast. He turned us all to demi-gods with such a punch as this, And took us up, with a loving cup, to the seventh heaven of bliss. * When an individual " renounces the errors " of one church and " adopts those " of another, it is now polite Eng lish to call him a vert (without con or pro), so as not to offend either the sect he is Verted from, or the sect he is verted to. Qucere, whether vert, in this sense, has any connection with the French word for green. " Apology " Newman thinks it hasn t. 21 ANACREONTICS. Dame Helen, when her husband brave hung out to young Telemachus,* Nepenthe to the party gave, (by no means unto them a cus.) A word which Wilkest mistook one week, and thought it was the same as is A different word in Heathen Greek, no more nor less than Nemesis. It conquered wrath and grief so quick, that, after tasting it, An alderman you couldn t kick or cry at Har per s wit, No better brew was e er displayed at any classic lunches, * See Odyssey, book iv., 219-30. f Not 45 John but 2 40- George. A man of great cour age, who sometimes makes desperate raids into foreign tongues with such success as that recorded above. 22 ANACREONTICS. But the punch that J. T. Johnston made was the punch of all the punches. The great Panurge went under ground,* so says his curious story, And there a wondrous sign he found, St. Bottle in his glory, It stirred his mighty wits to song, a song which I m afraid is A bit too broad, though none too long, to sing before the ladies. There was a better oracle for Johnston s con gregation, For it required no priest to tell a word of ex planation ;t * See Rabelais, book v., ch. 44-5. f As the priest Bacbuc was required to explain the oracle of the Holy Bottle. By the way, St. Bottles has a church to this day in Cambridge (E nglnnd). The name is sometimes erroneously written Botulph s. 23 ANACREONTICS. Champagne and hock, and oranges, Bohemian crystal crowning, Are very explicit, I guess, and not at all like Browning. See, see, around that brimming bowl s concomit ant utensils How gather all the goodly souls immortal in their pencils ! E. L. is holding forth to Hays, and serious as a quaker, he Is throwing light, sir, on the days of ornamental drapery. There s Eastman J. and Haseltine, a looking at a Venus,* * Now I think on t, twas a Diana. But as she was in the usual costume of a Venus, it comes to the same thing, so I let the couplet stand. 24 ANACREONTICS. And Beard, the glass his lips between, has vis ions of Silenus. While Benson* for an essay smart is seeking in spiration, Stone mingles science with his art, and takes an observation. t There s Bierstadt, recreant to his name, does what he " hadn t oughter," Though canvas gives him all his fame, he really paints on water. He passes by the ruby brink, the aggravating creature, c The real Benson, not the pseudo ; Eugene not Carl. He is well known as an art critic, also as the depictor of a young lady in various costumes and attitudes. Wherefore it was said by an irreverent person that Benson would be the fittest man to paint the recent peace conference, because he was ac customed to represent d m sels. t " With a glass operated on by means of a bottle." See Orpheus C. Kerr. 2 5 ANACREONTICS. And C. B. couldn t make him drink, no more than Stone could Beecher.* Brevoort has left his cloudy skies, Suydam his streams and shores, And little Lang one dimly spies, as through the crowd he bores. Says Gray to Hicks, " I m fain to think there is a slight omission, We ought to have, with such a drink, some glowing blondes of Titian." There s Rossiter, whose brilliant hues in old time would allure all eyes, 18 The story goes that Stone, being at the Atnenseum one night, approached the punch bowl as his wont is, and distribu ted of the same to the passers-by. Now, of these passers chanced to be Henry Ward Beecher, and it was Beecher s boast that no one ever dared to offer him a glass of liquor. There fore, on being thus accosted by Stone, he felt that he had lost his aquarian virginity, and rushed frantically from the premises, and mirabile dictu, was not seen or heard of in public for the next twelve hours. 26 AN ACRE ON TICS. Now seems to stand in other shoes, he s been so long to ruralize. He boasts the charm the country yields, and tells us what the hens ate, While Cranch the ladle deftly wields, and fills a glass for Kensett. If ars, celare artem be, their worth is undenied, For this artistic draught you see how rapidly they hide. But one has left us in the lurch and should we deem this hap ill ? No ! Johnston wouldn t have a Church ; he couldn t use a chap ill. So one glass round before we start to toast the new Maecenas, Who illustrates the spread of art, in every style and genus. 27 ANACREONTICS. Let s all, whate er our creed or cause, both Or thodox and Arians, Join in this damnatory clause, Jeff Davis take aquarians ! For Greeley shall stop talking trash, and Bennett shall stop lying; And Seward shall do something rash, and Hop- pin set us crying, And Sala grow respectable and cease to bore us, And Bayard Taylor cease to tell his elephantine stories,* Before a man of us forgets this day and all its glories. * Elephantine of, or relating to the elephant, also enormous, prodigious, colossal. It is here used in both senses. 28 ANACREONTICS. I am lying, Johnston, lying so I cannot walk to thee, To the glorious punchifying, where the merry fellows be ; Where the painters all are tippling the most picturesque of punches ; In its gentle eddy rippling through the jolliest of lunches ; Where those tales of Bayard Taylor s with Herod otus compete, And Cranch will sing the Sailors who their comrade tried to eat. How I wonder what you fellows think or speak of me to-day ! Will it worry Dr. Bellows if Carl Benson is away, 30 ANACREONTICS. Will it make Dick Hunt less jolly, render Bier- stadt s speech more slow, Will our Jack look melancholy cause his cousin cannot show ? Will Leutze say " poor fellow !" how I wish we had him here ?" Or the eye of Beard grow mellow with a sym pathetic tear ? Eugene Benson s up the country, to enjoy what he calls Spring, Though I think it great effront ry here to speak of such a thing, We have got no Spring (poor devils) in this wretched Western clime, When, the Summer s hottest revels follow close on Winter s rime ; ANACREONTICS. If we had a Spring like Europe, I should not be on my back, With exceedingly obscure hope of soon getting up, alack ! Ancient Greeks and Romans used at their ban quets to recline ; And the fashion then amused; but their taste is nowise mine ; And I ve heard that Fanny Kemble lay upon her back at sea, And made all the stewards tremble by her orders for her tea ; But this feeding on your back tis for me a stupid way, Rather than make it a practice, I d read Tit- comb every day. 32 ANACREONTICS. Oh, ye happy men with two legs, when the luscious bowl ye share, Since I cannot get me new legs, think I am in spirit there ! And if any High art lover, to his Mistress crown the brim, Let my aspirations hover round and hallow it for him. [I caught this last idea from a party named Tom Moore, Who is sometimes rather freer than the parsons can endure.] 33 LAGER. (1866.) VX7E started for the Mountain, Fanny and Jack and I ; The rising day was fresh and gay; The horses seemed to fly. I felt myself alive again, And put my hand on Charley s mane, A little ditch to try. As we went up the Mountain, Fanny and Jack and I, We had to go extremely slow To get so very high, 34 ANACREONTICS. Which seemed a sort of paradox, As we pushed scrambling through the rocks, Until the top was nigh. When we were on the Mountain, Fanny and Jack and I, And such a view as there are few Beneath our feet did lie, With hill and dale on either hand, We thought it very, very grand- Said some one "but its dry." We looked at one another, Fanny and Jack and I, As if to ask " who has a flask ?" But there was no reply. Quoth Jack, " If this were Deutschland here 35 ANACREONTICS. There would be certainty of beer, But now I none can spy. As we went down the Mountain, Fanny and Jack and I, We laughed and skipped and slid and slipped While half the morn went by ; And all our faces glowed like fire, For still the sun was mounting higher Along the clear, blue sky. When \ve were down the Mountain, Fanny and Jack and I, The sun shone out, no clouds about ; O Bacchus ! Weren t we dry ! We gallopped swiftly to our door And brought some bottles to the fore, 36 ANA CREONTIC S. (Or to the three, for want of more) And made the Lager fly. And as we drank that Lager, Fanny and Jack and I, It quenched the fire and cured the tire, And made us wondrous spry. We uttered many a fearful pun, The woods resounded with our fun, And Echo laughed reply. MORAL. Wer liebt niclit Weib iind Lager, Whenever the chance comes by, He is a great goose and not of much use, And just as well ma/ die, And when you go on a Summer ride, 37 ANA CREONTICS. Not knowing what may else betide, Lay in a good supply. 38 GERACE ROSSO. (November, 13, 1869.) HPHREE little bottles came by express ; Two were stolen,* so there were two less. We drank the last one of of the three In a merry, merry company. Two for the pencil and one for the pen, One for the nightingale s throat, and then One who pours (as Jenkins says) Her soul on the keys whene er she plays, What shall we say of the last ? That she Is just as good as she can be. * Namely, by the expressmen, a catastrophe not uncom mon in our corporation-ridden country. 39 ANACREONTICS. Our Western bard so learned and neat, And mellow and sweet, And brimming over with quaint conceit, Who has sung us lays of every land, On every theme from the light to the grand, Wishing well to me and mine, Sends me this Sicilian wine. Nine-and-twenty years ago, HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW,* Passing delicate stems about, Poured this wine for HAWTHORNE out. Carl Benson, (How we apples swim !) To finish the flask assisted him. * It is to be hoped that the reader will appreciate the sim pie beauty of this couplet. The author considers it nearly up to Tupper and a long way ahead of Dr. Holland. 40 ANA C RE ON TIC S. Nine-and-twenty years have passed, Joy and sorrow, sun and rain ; Now this prince of good-and-Long-fellows Sends me some of his wine again. Oedenburger is very good hock, And goes with oysters very well ; Let no man at dry Sillery mock, Or say that Ofner is a sell. (One for the soup and one for the fish ; Every bottle to its dish.) These we have, and ask no more, When the guests are six, than bottles four So, as the crowning cup of the feast, Gerace Rosso comes, last, not least. He shall have the latest word; He shall wait on our country s bird, 41 ANA CREONTIC S. Our country s bird, our glory and pride, Renowned and honored far and wide. (I don t mean the eagle, so often stuck Into useless verse, but the canvas-back duck.) He speaks to the rest of joy and gladness ; He speaks to me of beauty and madness,* Checquered thoughts he brings to me, That fervent wine of Sicily. "When the wine is in the wit is out." The ancient saying is true no doubt. (Not in the sense that those would read, Perverted by aquarian creed;) For if a man has any wit, * Countess Gerace was a beautiful woman. Her cousin, the Duke of Terranova, took to politics late in life and went mad. 42 ANACREONTICS-. Good liquor takes good hold of it, And brings it out in proper place, The festive board to grace. This hath been said in various shapes ; Better by none than shrewd DeMapes Poculis accenditur animi lucerna Cor imbutum Hectare volat ad s^lpema. " The lantern of the intellect is lighted by the cup, The spirit soaked in nectar to Olympus mountetli up." But what that day We were moved to say, I cannot, cannot tell, Not I although We were far from slow, And talked uncommonly well ; 43 ANACREONTICS. For repartee, and pun, and laughter Were carried away by what came after; And all the evening dissolved for me In a stream of molten melody, That floats In notes, Out-rolled Like liquid gold. That gushing strain, so sweet and clear, Moves a heart of stone to hear, " Riqui, Riqui, Riqui, Riqui." When the mocking bird can speak, he Talks just so, I know. 44 (EDENBURG. (May 19, 1870.) These verses were partly suggested by some twaddle of Dr. Holland in " SCRIBNER." I. ~^HIS, with name recalling Eden, Doth its kindred wines exceed in Delicate bouquet. Lucky artist pair who found it, And as king of tipples crowned it, On a happy day. ii. Six months ago We were here just so; 45 ANA CREONTIC S. Three merry, merry men are we, One on the canvass and one on the turf, And Jack hard up a tree ; But very, very little seeks he If the purse be on the wane, So the girls are here again, And the good wine sparkling free. in. Hence, avaunt ! tis holy ground, Let no Greeley lurk around, Or Frothingham or Beecher, Or any other such creature As an " affinity " preacher, Or Cady coarse with double tongue, Harping upon woman s wrong. Woman s right is here to-night, 46 ANA CREONTICS. And the right women too ; Women by travel and study enlightened, Who know what s what and who s who ; Women who are not too easily frightened, Whatever you say or do ; With whom you may joke and tipple and smoke ; They are up to it all, as well as you. IV. But one of our six Jovial bricks, (Brick, you know, is an epicene noun) Warbles no more to a listening town. Far, far over the sea, In a gush of melody, Our sweet singing bird has flown. 47 ANA CRE O NTICS. So we must lean on a reed, (A pretty stout one indeed,) To make up for her that s gone. v. A.VTUQ fltti 71O61O2 Kal ISrjTVog tg egov erro When the guests had eaten their fill, And drunk as much as they meant to, To ftax%ucov ScdQmua They lit, in social expansion, KciTiviGGav XCCTCC xKioioc$ And raised a smoke in the mansion, VI. Then you should have seen her, the pride of our girls, ANACREONTICS. The way she cast back the long sweep of her curls ! Th above panegyric is borrowed from Whittier. Perhaps, when you read, you are ready to pity her, For being so far behind or outside The fashion, since rarely a maid is descried Who will let her hair loose in long curls now-a- days. If she wanders in fashion s mysterious ways, She bunches it up in some curious maze. So I hasten to tell you at once (without joke) The curls that I speak 01 were ringlets of smoke, 49 ANACREONTICS. VII. Look at her! Hear her! Worship her there! As she sits at her ease in a soft arm-chair, Between the puffs of her light cigarette Tossing out melody, jet after jet, And the hearers are all agreed No tones that are touched from a harp with man s fingers, (Vide Swinburne) can vie with the music that lingers, When blown through girl s mouth by a reed, And all of us swore as we heard That her singing was truly divine, And that all the more our hearts she stirred Because of that wonderful wine. ANACREONTICS, MORAL. Who loves not woman, wine and song, Reads Greeley and Holland his whole life long. 51 ANA CREO N TIC S. WINE AND WISDOM. (FROM THE PERSIAN.} r I ^HE wise man drinketh well, I wis, In late or early walking, The old wine in his cellar is, The new wit in his talking; For if you us of one deprive, The other hardly will survive, They stand or fall together. The deeper down we dip in wine, The more our spirits raise us, When wisdom s beard can drip in wine, Then all the world surveys us : 52 ANACREONTICS. In ecstasy surrounding us, With threefold transport rapturous, Of wine and song and loving. The wise man with his cup you see Above the vulgar standing, As mountains looming up you see, The vale below commanding ; The mountain shines in heaven s light, Our faces beam with clearer sisfht, o Illumined by the goblet. What is it Cato proffers us Instead of our good living? Than joys a revel offers us, What better is he giving? One thing I know not he forsooth ! 53 ANACREONTICS. If Clara in her blooming youth Were teasing me with kisses. Since life is short and care is long, This aim the wise can boast of, The time that will not spare us long, We mean to make the most of; Then drop your scruples, youngster do ! Come up here to our jolly crew, Like sunlight on the mountain. 54 HOCHHEIMER. TS there anything much sublimer Than a jolly good glass of Hochheimer? Of Bordeaux I always shall speak in terms of praise (How nicely it and salmon go together !), And it never is in vain to offer me Champagne, However hot or cold be the weather, Though I own I do not care a speech in Con gress for Madeira, While Sol is at his present intensity; Pale Sherry, put in ice, for a glass or two, is nice Though Robeson says it is a proof of density In mortal, young or old, to drink his sherry cold, 55 ANACREONTICS. But I do not submit to his authority; And punches let me see I know one, two and three,* But dorit know which should have the pri ority, But just now, of all the tipples that inspire a lively rhymer, I own a special preference for 68 Hochheimer. Well the French might want the Rhine 7 Where they raise this lovely wine ! Well the Germans might be stout In such a cause to fight it out ! And candid men have aye confessed Poets, whose wine is good, are best. * Davis, Maecenas and La Rcim, Try them all, and try back again. 56 A NA CRE O N TICS. There is a great way from A. de Musset To the gorgeous bard of Weimar; The one for his nip absinthe did sip, The other drank Hochheimer. Would you know how to drink this wine ? Tell your man before you dine (Or if you have a Phyllis, tell her) To bring the bottle from the cellar, As straight as he (or she) is able, The moment ere you go to table; That s the proper way to drink it; Iceing doesn t pay ; don t think it. For a swell man like you, a swell goblet will do To pass the rich draught to your throttle ; For a big-bellied glass (sure as Dow is an ass) 57 ANA CREONTICS. Is the mate to your long-throated bottle. And the curve of the lip adds a zest to your sip (Like the cream on a strawberry pottle), But after your meat you must eat nothing sweet ; Then I bet you don t stir from the spot till Perforce you stop at the last, last drop, like a true Parnassus climber, And leave a very empty flask that held the brave Hochheimer. 53 PUNCH SONG. (This song is not after Horace, But a later poet, Morris.) "ATEAR the white-topped almond cake, Love, be jolly for my sake; Pass the goblets round with care, Pledge me in this beverage rare. Pledge me, Love! for who knoweth What thing after punch cometh ? Shall we mourn an empty bowl, Or set sorrow on our soul ? Mellowed by this golden cup 59 ANACREONTICS. Wilt thou weep sweet drinks drunk up ? Pledge me, Love ! for who knoweth What thing after punch cometh ? 60 RAUZAN MARGAUX. TO GEORGE W. CURTIS. (Easter Sunday, 1872.) I. C\ SAGE sentiment and sober ! O grave Malatromba of ours ! Come, cease to look stiff as a crowbar ! Come, strew your life s pathway with flowers! But waste no bad claret your cash on ; For here is a brand you don t know ; Tis only just coming in fashion ; They call it the Rauzan Margaux ! 61 ANACREONTICS. II. So drop all your carpers and sharpers, And let Civil Service go hang! Leave "Justice" to lie for the Harpers; Leave Forney the bolters to bang. A truce to satirical pennings At Fenton and Greeley & Co., Leave Schurz to be buttoned by Jennings ; You tackle this Rauzan Margaux ! in. Rich velvet is lovely when sinking Down a fair woman s back in a mass ; But velvet is better for drinking, When you conjure it into a glass. Once show it the road to your palate, It glides with perennial flow, 62 ANACREONTICS. And a touch that is sure to enthral it This soft-stepping Rauzan Margaux. IV. And the blood of the grape as it lingers Through ruddy and readiest lips, Shall strike, like a song of sweet singers, To the soul of the sitter who sips, Till we rival the topers of story, Till we spurn all the dull and the slow, And our thoughts stalk abroad in their glory, Inspired by the Rauzan Margaux. v. For the soul of the Frenchman is in it ; This wine is a true child of Gaul ; It lifts up your heart like a linnet 63 ANA CREONTICS. To talk with the best of them all. They say that the brook is but shallow The stream is pellucid, we know, And rich recollections shall hallow The stream of the Rauzan Margaux. VI. With every fresh glass they come clearer, The scintillant sayings that shine, The chaff that provokes not the hearer, The wit that comes out with the wine, The repartees dexterous dashes, The sparkles of spirit that glow, (No truculent satire that lashes,) These rise from the Rauzan Margaux. 64 ANACREONTICS. VII. But, alas ! for our joys evanescent, Our perishing home of a day ! Too soon flies the pleasantest present, The fairest of flow rets decay ; And fate, with sardonical banter, Makes jest at the glass that is low We have finished oiir second decanter, And drunk all the Rauzan Margaux. 65 STEIN WE IN. To Sam Ward, OUR Sam Ward; the only original. All others, whether unth middle names or rot, are impostors. should this wine, so full and fine, be called a wine of stone ? Can any sage explain me this ? Has any mortal known ? Is it because the luscious draught a stony heart would move, And make the miser generous and the misan thrope love ? Or is it that it gives the force and overpower ing might 66 ANA CREONTICS. Which makes the Deutschcr, like a rock, stand through the thickest fight ? Or call we it a precious stone, a very gem of drink, A jewel bright in dusky case when glasses gaily clink ? Come, work it out by algebra, you all-accom plished man. Or rhyme it out in goodly verse, if rhyme it out you can. Or play it in a symphony of solemn swelling sound, Or in the dozen tongues you speak the mystery expound, We will not quarrel with the name, whatever first it meant, 67 ANA CREONTIC S. But only think, as the wine we drink, tis worthy him who sent. Encomium more exquisite could hardly be de vised Though one should take a week to tell how much the gift is prized. And if my verse seem all too bad your good wine to repay, I did the same to Longfellow. What is there more to say ? 68 THE SONS OF THE SORROWFUL, OR THE LIQUOR LICENSE. A majority of the cities and towns of Massachusetts voted yesterday to license the sale of cider and beer. Morning papers. T MET a gaunt Aquarian, His nose was long and blue; He looked so bad, that watery cad, Twas painful him to view ; Adown his face there rolled apace A salt and bitter tear ; " Alas !" he cried (and sore he sighed), " They ve licensed cider and beer ! " We thought we d drawn our leading-strings Around the state so tight, 6 9 ANACREONTICS. Cold water on its healing wings Would put all foes to flight. No drop of aught that s good to drink Should in the land appear, But now it makes my spirits sink They ve licensed cider and beer! " The deed is done I plainly That we shall backwards go, And follow men like Agassiz, And men like Longfellow ; And after Fiske our heads will frisk Till daylight doth appear. Some fiend has brought our work to naught And licensed cider and beer ! " The goodly time was coming fast When malt should be a sin ; 70 ANACREONTICS. When we could shut Hans Breitmann up, And cage Gambrinus in ; When wine should be a felony, And meet a doom severe; They ve stultified our hope and pride ; They ve licensed cider and beer ! If children ill of typhoid lie, Let willing angels take em ; Twere better far they all should die Than brandy sound should make em. Let nursing mothers faint and droop For want of spiritual cheer But ah ! I dream ; they ve spoiled our scheme ; They ve licensed cider and beer ! What will befall our wicked State, That hath backslided thus ? ANA CREONTICS. What awful doom will cruel fate Inflict upon poor us ? Say, shall we see great General B. Our Governor next year ? Or greater curse, if any s worse ? They ve licensed cider and beer!" His voice grew faint, he slunk away, His nose seemed lengthening out ; His coat-tails flapped in disarray, Like shirt of Dicky Dout ; But on the wind he cast behind His plaint in accents drear, "Woe to the Hub! O Beelzebub! They ve licensed cider and beer ! 72 AD FONTIUM NYMPH AS. (AFTER HER RICK.) /^V LATICE ex ilia si jam mihi virgine lympha Candida tendatur candidiore manu ! Protinus, hoc facto, pateram circumque superque Lilia conspiciam florida vere suo, Aut tandem hoc, Nymphae, mihi cedite saepe precanti ; Pocula tarn clulci tangite clara labro, Et, simul ac vestris aqua sit conjuncta labellis, Flumine mutato rebor adesse merum.* * Aquarians will please not translate this word mere rum. 73 ANNAE CONCUBITUS. (Poetae Scoti carmen celeberrimi Latine redditum.) FESTERNA laticis cyathus mihi nocte Falerni Fallebat spumans, tutus eratque locus ; Hesterna, memini, carissima nocte capillos In nostro flavos straverat Anna sinu. Ah, loti ramo desertis exul arenis Gaudeat aspecto, qua domet ille famem ; Ast Annae haerebam mellito laetus in ore ; Gaudia quam fuerint ista secunda meis ! Omnia longinquo, reges, teneatis ab Indo Usque ad ubi Hesperiis extat Atlantis aquis. Fervidus at clominae teneam mollissima membra, Languidaque amplexu cincta sit Anna meo ! 74 ANA CREONTICS. Dellicias magnorum ergo nil inde morabor, Posthabita Eoi regis et uxor erit, Dummodo languescens, ulnis circumdatus Annae, Divinas reddam suscipiamque vices. Jam mal resplendens subducas lumen Apollo, Et tua subducat Candida, Phoebe, soror ! Parvula ne radios conspergat stella micantes ! Ocius, egrediens, ocius, Anna veni ! Jamque adeas, nigris O Nox quae niteris alis, Et valeant Phoebus, sidera, Luna, precor! Tu calamum afflatu divino tange poetae, Divina ut narret gaudia quanta tulit ! 75 THE END. 14 DAY USE TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROW! LOAN DEPT. Gt^~ i LD 2lA-40m-ll, 63 (El602slO)476B University of California General Library Berkeley