Hail, Coffee!

COFFEE affords a good restoring draft,

Which clears the fumes of wine too freely quaffed.

By her you gain, when you the table quit,

A calm more courteous, and a brighter wit;

And soon recovered, by her powerful aid,

You are not of a second feast afraid.

She by the god of verse is praised and loved;

The poet’s genius is by her improved.

Your frigid rimers, if at times inspired,

Write their best lines by coffee’s fragrance fired.

She can enliven philosophic plan,

And make an analyst a pleasant man.

Statesmen, through her, well feasted and content,

Form happy schemes of better government.

Knowledge sometimes to journalists she brings

Of court intrigues, and deep designs of kings.

Peace, truces, wars, she to his dreams can show,

And lets him, for three pence, the world o’erthrow.