Wine Bibber



I would rather drink than eat,
         And though I superbly sup,
Food, I feel, can never beat
         Delectation of the cup.
Wine it is that crowns the feast;
         Fish and fowl and fancy meat
Are of my delight the least:
         I would rather drink than eat.
         
Though no Puritan I be,
         And have doubts of Kingdom Come,
With those fellows I agree
         Who deplore the Demon Rum.
Gin and brandy I decline,
         And I shy at whisky neat;
But give me rare vintage wine,--
         Gad! I'd rather drink than eat.

Food surfeit is of the beast;
         Wine is from the gods a gift.
All from prostitute to priest
         Can attest to its uplift.
Green and garnet glows the vine;
         Grapes grow plump in happy heat;
Gold and ruby winks the wine . . .
         Come! Let's rather drink than eat.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

42 sec read
115

Quick analysis:

Scheme AbabcacA dedefafa cgcgfafa
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 815
Words 140
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8

Robert William Service

Robert William Service was a poet and writer sometimes referred to as the Bard of the Yukon He is best-known for his writings on the Canadian North including the poems The Shooting of Dan McGrew The Law of the Yukon and The Cremation of Sam McGee His writing was so expressive that his readers took him for a hard-bitten old Klondike prospector not the later-arriving bank clerk he actually was Robert William Service was born 16 January 1874 in Preston England but also lived in Scotland before emigrating to Canada in 1894 Service went to the Yukon Territory in 1904 as a bank clerk and became famous for his poems about this region which are mostly in his first two books of poetry He wrote quite a bit of prose as well and worked as a reporter for some time but those writings are not nearly as well known as his poems He travelled around the world quite a bit and narrowly escaped from France at the beginning of the Second World War during which time he lived in Hollywood California He died 11 September 1958 in France Incidentally he played himself in a movie called The Spoilers starring John Wayne and Marlene Dietrich more…

All Robert William Service poems | Robert William Service Books

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