Drink Of This Cup.

Drink of this cup;--you'll find there's a spell in
    Its every drop 'gainst the ills of mortality;
Talk of the cordial that sparkled for Helen!
    Her cup was a fiction, but this is reality.
Would you forget the dark world we are in,
    Just taste of the bubble that gleams on the top of it;
But would you rise above earth, till akin
    To Immortals themselves, you must drain every drop of it;
Send round the cup--for oh there's a spell in
    Its every drop 'gainst the ills of mortality;
Talk of the cordial that sparkled for Helen!
    Her cup was a fiction, but this is reality.

Never was philter formed with such power
    To charm and bewilder as this we are quaffing;
Its magic began when, in Autumn's rich hour,
    A harvest of gold in the fields it stood laughing.
There having, by Nature's enchantment, been filled
    With the balm and the bloom of her kindliest weather,
This wonderful juice from its core was distilled
    To enliven such hearts as are here brought together.
Then drink of the cup--you'll find there's a spell in
    Its every drop 'gainst the ills of mortality;
Talk of the cordial that sparkled for Helen!
    Her cup was a fiction, but this is reality.

And tho' perhaps--but breathe it to no one--
    Like liquor the witch brews at midnight so awful,
This philter in secret was first taught to flow on,
    Yet 'tisn't less potent for being unlawful.
And, even tho' it taste of the smoke of that flame,
    Which in silence extracted its virtue forbidden--
Fill up--there's a fire in some hearts I could name,
    Which may work too its charm, tho' as lawless and hidden.
So drink of the cup--for oh there's a spell in
    Its every drop 'gainst the ills of mortality;
Talk of the cordial that sparkled for Helen!
    Her cup was a fiction, but this is reality.