Scenes at Wine-feasts

The feast begins, — on either hand
The guests by rank reclining;
In close array the dishes stand,
The meats and fruits aligning.
The wines are choice, and flavoured well,
The guests all harmonizing;
Placed on the stands are drum and bell;
All round are pledge-cups rising.
Then the great target is prepared,
And bows brought out and quivers,
And marksmen man with man are paired: —
"Now do your best endeavours!
"Hit yonder central white who can
"The cup may order for his man."

For flute-dance — drum, harmonicon
Unite to give the measure;
'Mid all the rites this too is done
Th' illustrious Sires to pleasure.
"For all the ritual thus gone through,
"So full and so resplendent,
"True blessings they confer on you,
"And joy on each descendant.
"Add mirth to joy. Each do his best ": —
(So speaks the Personator).
A cup is drawn then by a guest,
And then comes in a waiter
Who pours them out the Cup of Peace;
And so the ceremonies cease.

The guests, when first they sit them down,
Look mild and most respectful,
And — ere their intellects they drown —
Sedate, of nought forgetful.
But when to great excess they go, —
Proprieties renouncing, —
Out of their seats they start, and oil
The capering and bouncing!
So is it, — while they drink not deep,
They bear themselves subduedly;
But when due bounds they overleap,
Behave themselves most rudely.
Ay, when to such excess they go,
No sense of order do they show.

Ay, when the guests have drunk their fill,
What bellowing, what brawling!
Dishes they overturn and spill
With posturing and sprawling.
'Tis so, when thus far they have gone,—
Unconscious of offending, —
Caps all awry, and barely on,
Their gambols seem unending.
If so you drank, then went away,
'Twould do you good, not hurt you;
But so to drink and so to stay,
This means goodbye to virtue!
A wine-feast is a rare good thing
When men good manners to it bring.

Of all these drinkers, one's a sot,
Another shuns the liquor;
And so an overseer is got, —
Perhaps a counter-checker!
And when the sots all order scorn,
And sober ones are blushing,
Then the refractory ones they warn
To cease their headlong rushing,
To say not things they should not say,
Nor tell uncalled-for tattle;
For " hornless rams do they display
Who make such sottish prattle."
If with three cups the wits be gone,
What if you venture on and on?