X
To drink one drop thereof is to be drunk.
The firm feet stagger, and the world spins round;
The fair speech stammers—nature's God hath sunk
Into some trivial place of the profound.
But he who is drunk thereon is wholly sane,
Being wholly mad; he moves with space-wide wings
Sees not a world—engulphed in the inane!
Nor needs a voice for speech, because he sings.
What then of them who are most drunk together
As you and I are, mystic maiden o' mine,
Beyond Dionysus and his tedious tether,
Beyond Kithairon and his topmost pine?
Why, even now I am drunk who scribble amiss
These lines, not thinking—save of your last kiss!
The firm feet stagger, and the world spins round;
The fair speech stammers—nature's God hath sunk
Into some trivial place of the profound.
But he who is drunk thereon is wholly sane,
Being wholly mad; he moves with space-wide wings
Sees not a world—engulphed in the inane!
Nor needs a voice for speech, because he sings.
What then of them who are most drunk together
As you and I are, mystic maiden o' mine,
Beyond Dionysus and his tedious tether,
Beyond Kithairon and his topmost pine?
Why, even now I am drunk who scribble amiss
These lines, not thinking—save of your last kiss!
— 28 —
