Page:Poems Cook.djvu/164

I have heard the bosom all warm and rife
 With friendship, offer up
Its faith in heaven, its hope on earth,
 With the name it breathed in the cup!
And I was proud to seal the bond
Of the truly great and the firmly fond.

I have served to raise the shivering form
 That sunk in the driving gale;
I have fann'd the flame that famine and storm
 Had done their worst to pale.
The stagnant vein has been curdled and cold
 As the marble's icy streak;
But I have come, and the tide hath roll'd
 Right on to the heart and cheek;
And bursting words from a grateful breast
Have told the golden Goblet was blest.

Oh! Heaven forbid that bar or ban
 Should be thrown on the draught I bear;
But woful it is that senseless man
 Will brand me with sin and despair.
Use me wisely, and I will lend
 A joy ye may cherish and praise;
But love me too well, and my potion shall send
 A burning blight on your days.
This is the strain I sing as ye fill—
"Beware! the Goblet can cheer or kill."

 

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