Ralph Waldo Emerson, comp. (1803–1882). Parnassus: An Anthology of Poetry. 1880.
To Live Merrily, and to Trust to Good VersesRobert Herrick (15911674)
N
Nor cheek or tongue be dumb;
For the flowry earth,
The golden pomp is come.
For now each tree does wear,
Made of her pap and gum,
Rich beads of amber here.
The Arabian dew besmears
My uncontrollèd brow,
And my retorted hairs.
In sack of such a kind,
That it would make thee see,
Though thou wert ne’er so blind.
To pledge this second health
In wine, whose each cup’s worth
An Indian commonwealth.
To Ovid; and suppose
Made he the pledge, he’d think
The world had all one nose.
Of aromatic wine,
Catullus, I quaff up
To that terse muse of thine.
O Bacchus! cool thy rays;
Or frantic I shall eat
Thy Thyrse, and bite the Bays.
And being ravisht thus,
Come, I will drink a tun
To my Propertius.
This flood I drink to thee;
But stay, I see a text,
That this presents to me.
Here burnt, whose small return
Of ashes scarce suffice
To fill a little urn.
They only will aspire,
When pyramids, as men,
Are lost in the funeral fire.
In Lethe, to be drowned;
Then only numbers sweet,
With endless life are crowned.