Song For Vintners

|THE Lion laps the limpid lake,

`The Pard refuses wine,

The sinuous Lizard and the Snake,

`The petulant Porcupine,

Agree in this, their thirst to quench

Only with Nature's natural "drench."=

In vain with beer you tempt the Deer,

`Or lure the Marmozet;

The early morning Chanticleer,

`The painted Parroquet,

Alike, on claret and champagne

Gaze with unfaltering disdain.=

No ale or spirit tempts the Ferret,

`No juice of grape the Toad.

In vain towards the "Harp and Merit"

`The patient Ox you goad;

Not his in rapture to extol

The praises of the flowing bowl.=

The silent Spider laughs at cider,

`The Horse despises port;

The Crocodile (whose mouth is wider

`Than any other sort)

Prefers the waters of the Nile

To any of a stronger style.=

The Rabbit knows no "private bar,"

`The Pelican will wander

Through arid plains of Kandahar,

`Nor ever pause to ponder

Whether in that infernal clime

The clocks converge to "closing time."=

True "bona-fide traveller"

`Urging no sophist plea,

How terrible must seem to her

`Man's inebriety;

She who in thirsty moments places

Her simple trust in green oases.=

With what calm scorn the Unicorn,

`In his remote retreat,

Must contemplate the fervour born

`Of old "Ch√Ęteau Lafitte."

Conceive the feelings of the Sphinx

Confronted with Columbian drinks!=

And oh! if all this solemn truth

`Were dinned into its mind

From earliest years, might not our youth

`Regenerate mankind,

Aspire to climb the Heights, and dare

To emulate the Belgian hare?=