Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, OLD AMONTILLADO, by M. E. W. G.



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

OLD AMONTILLADO, by                    
First Line: Fill my wine-glass brimming high
Last Line: M. E. W. G.
Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics; Love - Loss Of; Drunkards; Alcohol Abuse


FILL my wine-glass brimming high
With the ripe old sherry,
I will drink to days gone by
When e'en I was merry;
Look ye how the wine doth glow,
Like my hopes of long ago!

From the goblet I will drain
All the old-time flavor,
Dreaming of those days again,
Tasting of love's favor;
How it warms these veins of ours,
Like the bright midsummer hours!

I am thirty years to-night, --
Life's no longer jolly;
All the ghosts of past delight,
And skeletons of folly,
Hold their revel in my brain,
Mimicking their former reign.

In these years I've lost a friend
Dearer than earth's treasures;
In these years I've seen love's end,
And the end of pleasures;
Now the wine mounts to my brain,
Drowning all the grief and pain,

And my thoughts go back in time
To a maiden merry;
Voice that haunts as some old rhyme,
Lips a winsome cherry,
Hair a nut-brown coronet
On her low, broad forehead set.

What if love be at an end,
Life no longer merry,
Here's a good old trusty friend,
Ripe and rare old sherry, --
Truer than that girl, I know,
Many, many years ago!
M. E. W. G.





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