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Three Interesting Poems (Sort Of) About Wine

A few verses worthy of any wine drinker's attention.

The NWR Editors · Jun 09, 2023

Three Interesting Poems (Sort Of) About Wine
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

A Drinking Song

Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.

Li Po (701-762), Translated by Arthur Waley

DRINKING ALONE BY MOONLIGHT

A cup of wine, under the flowering trees;
I drink alone, for no friend is near.
Raising my cup I beckon the bright moon,
For he, with my shadow, will make three men.
The moon, alas, is no drinker of wine;
Listless, my shadow creeps about at my side.
Yet with the moon as friend and the shadow as slave
I must make merry before the Spring is spent.
To the songs I sing the moon flickers her beams;
In the dance I weave my shadow tangles and breaks.
While we were sober, three shared the fun;
Now we are drunk, each goes his way.
May we long share our odd, inanimate feast,
And meet at last on the Cloudy River of the sky.

Countee Cullen (1903-1946)

Bread and Wine

From death of star to new star's birth,
    This ache of limb, this throb of head,
This sweaty shop, this smell of earth,
    For this we pray, "Give daily bread."
Then tenuous with dreams the night,
    The feel of soft brown hands in mine,
Strength from your lips for one more fight
    Bread's not so dry when dipped in wine.

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