Sparkling and Bright

Charles Fenno Hoffman (1806–1884)

SPARKLING and bright in liquid light,

Does the wine our goblets gleam in,

With hue as red as the rosy bed

Which a bee would choose to dream in.

Then fill to-night, with hearts as light,

To loves as gay and fleeting

As bubbles that swim on the beaker’s brim,

And break on the lips while meeting.

Oh! if Mirth might arrest the flight

Of Time through Life’s dominions,

We here a while would now beguile

The graybeard of his pinions,

To drink to-night, with hearts as light,

To loves as gay and fleeting

As bubbles that swim on the beaker’s brim,

And break on the lips while meeting.

But since Delight can’t tempt the wight,

Nor fond Regret delay him,

Nor Love himself can hold the elf,

Nor sober Friendship stay him,

We ’ll drink to-night, with hearts as light,

To loves as gay and fleeting

As bubbles that swim on the beaker’s brim,

And break on the lips while meeting.