Drinking Poetry
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The thirsty earth soaks up the rain.
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And drinks, and gapes for drink again;
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The plants suck in the earth and are:
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With constant drinking, fresh and fair,
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The sea itself (which one would think
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Should have but little need of drink)
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Drinks ten thousand rivers up,
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So filled that they overflow the cup.
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The busie sun (and one would guess
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By’s drunken, fiery face no less.
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Drinks up the sea, and when he ’as done,
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The moon and stars drink up the sun.
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They drink and dance by their own light.
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They drink and revel all night.
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Nothing in Nature’s sober found,
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But an eternal “health” goes around.
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Fill up the bowl, then fill it high.
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Fill all the glasses there; for why?
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Should every creature drink but me?
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Why, man of morals, tell me why?
Source: Anacreon (Greek). Translation of Abraham Cowlex
