Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

Poems of Friendship

“Wreathe the bowl”

Thomas Moore (1779–1852)

WREATHE the bowl

With flowers of soul,

The brightest wit can find us;

We ’ll take a flight

Towards heaven to-night,

And leave dull earth behind us!

Should Love amid

The wreaths be hid

That Joy, the enchanter, brings us,

No danger fear

While wine is near—

We ’ll drown him if he stings us.

Then wreathe the bowl

With flowers of soul,

The brightest wit can find us;

We ’ll take a flight

Towards heaven to-night,

And leave dull earth behind us!

’T was nectar fed

Of old, ’t is said,

Their Junos, Joves, Apollos;

And man may brew

His nectar too;

The rich receipt ’s as follows:—

Take wine like this;

Let looks of bliss

Around it well be blended;

Then bring wit’s beam

To warm the stream,

And there ’s your nectar, splendid!

So wreathe the bowl

With flowers of soul,

The brightest wit can find us;

We ’ll take a flight

Towards heaven to-night,

And leave dull earth behind us!

Say, why did Time

His glass sublime

Fill up with sands unsightly,

When wine he knew

Runs brisker through,

And sparkles far more brightly?

Oh, lend it us,

And, smiling thus,

The glass in two we ’d sever,

Make pleasure glide

In double tide,

And fill both ends for ever!

Then wreathe the bowl

With flowers of soul,

The brightest wit can find us;

We ’ll take a flight

Towards heaven to-night,

And leave dull earth behind us!