Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DRINKING SONG; BY A TETOTALER, by JOHN GODFREY SAXE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DRINKING SONG; BY A TETOTALER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I've been drinking, I've been drinking
Last Line: Try to sober me again!
Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics


I'VE been drinking, I've been drinking,
To intoxication's edge;
Do not chide me; for the tipple
Wasn't mentioned in the pledge.

Nay, believe me, -- 't was not Brandy
Wrought the roses that you see;
One may get a finer crimson
From a purer eau-de-vie.

No, indeed; it was not Claret
(That were something overweak);
There's a vastly better vintage
For the painting of a cheek.

Not Angelica, -- the honey
By Loyola's children pressed
From the Andalusian clusters
Ripened in the Golden West;

Not Madeira, Hock, nor Sherry;
No, indeed, 't is none of these
Makes me giddy in the forehead,
Makes me tremble in the knees.

No; 't is not the Gallic "Widow"
That has turned my foolish brain,
Nor the wine of any vineyard
Found in Germany or Spain.

Nay -- I own it! -- 't is the nectar
That a favored lover sips
(All unheeding of the danger!)
From a maiden's pulpy lips!

This it is that I've been drinking
To intoxication's edge;
Till I marvel that the tipple
Is n't mentioned in the pledge!

For the taste is so enchanting
'T is impossible to see,
Should it grow into a habit,
What the consequence may be.

Well, I'll heed the sage's lesson,
Pleasant, though it prove in vain,
And by drinking very largely
Try to sober me again!





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