INSCRIPTION FOR AN ANTIQUE PITCHER
Come, old friend! sit down and listen!
From the pitcher, placed between us,
How the waters laugh and glisten
In the head of old Silenus!
Old Silenus, bloated, drunken,
Led by his inebriate Satyrs;
On his breast his head is sunken,
Vacantly he leers and chatters.
Fauns with youthful Bacchus follow;
Ivy crowns that brow supernal
As the forehead of Apollo,
And possessing youth eternal.
Round about him, fair Bacchantes,
Bearing cymbals, flutes, and thyrses,
Wild from Naxian groves, or Zante’s
Vineyards, sing delirious verses.
Thus he won, through all the nations,
Bloodless victories, and the farmer
Bore, as trophies and oblations,
Vines for banners, ploughs for armor.
Judged by no o’erzealous rigor,
Much this mystic throng expresses:
Bacchus was the type of vigor,
And Silenus of excesses.
These are ancient ethnic revels,
Of a faith long since forsaken;
Now the Satyrs, changed to devils,
Frighten mortals wine-o’ertaken.
Now to rivulets from the mountains
Point the rods of fortune-tellers;
Youth perpetual dwells in fountains,–
Not in flasks, and casks, and cellars.
Claudius, though he sang of flagons
And huge tankards filled with Rhenish,
From that fiery blood of dragons
Never would his own replenish.
Even Redi, though he chaunted
Bacchus in the Tuscan valleys,
Never drank the wine he vaunted
In his dithyrambic sallies.
Then with water fill the pitcher
Wreathed about with classic fables;
Ne’er Falernian threw a richer
Light upon Lucullus’ tables.
Come, old friend, sit down and listen
As it passes thus between us,
How its wavelets laugh and glisten
In the head of old Silenus!
(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
More Poetry from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Poems based on Topics: Youth, Water, Fairness, Friendship, Listening, Success, Belief & Faith, Boredom, Eternity, Wine, Devils- The Golden Legend: VI. The School Of Salerno (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Poems)
- The Golden Legend: V. A Covered Bridge At Lucerne (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Poems)
- The Golden Legend: Prologue & 1. (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Poems)
- By The Seaside : The Building Of The Ship (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Poems)
- Coplas De Manrique (From The Spanish) (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Poems)
- The Blind Girl Of Castel-Cuille. (From The Gascon of Jasmin) (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Youth Poems, Fairness Poems, Friendship Poems, Success Poems, Belief & Faith Poems, Water Poems, Eternity Poems, Wine Poems, Listening Poems, Devils Poems, Boredom PoemsBased on Keywords: glisten, classic, bacchus, trophies, sunken, pitcher, dragons, flutes, wreathed, frighten, possessing