Classic Poem

N E'ER talk of Wisdom's gloomy schools;
Give me the sage who 's able
To draw his moral thoughts and rules
From the study of the table; —
Who learns how lightly, fleetly pass
This world and all-that 's in it,
From the bumper that but crowns his glass,
And is gone again next minute!

The diamond sleeps within the mine,
The pearl beneath the water;
While Truth, more precious, dwells in wine,
The grape's own rosy daughter.
And none can prize her charms like him,
Oh, none like him obtain her,
Who thus can, like Leander, swim
Thro' sparkling floods to gain her!