Classic Poem

O how my breast is glowing
When I am drinking wine;
And how my verse is flowing
In honour of the nine.

How vanish grief and sorrow
When I am drinking wine;
Each thought about the morrow,
Each project and design.

Through roseate space I’m gliding
When I am drinking wine;
My spirit ’neath the guiding
Of Bacchus, the divine.

I crown my head with flowers
When I am drinking wine,
And say: “Almighty powers,
A quiet life be mine!”

The air with sweets perfuming,
When I am drinking wine,
I sit with damsel blooming
Beneath a spreading vine.

No thought am I concealing
When I am drinking wine;
My bosom’s all revealing,
I sit beneath the vine.

My tongue I watch not over
When I am drinking wine;
My heart I all discover,
And naught within confine.