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Saturday 7 September 2013

Saturday Rave: Drinking, by Abraham Cowley.

I can't honestly say that this a good argument, exactly, but it's certainly a very well-made one.

The thirsty earth soaks up the rain,
 

And drinks and gapes for drink again;
 

The plants suck in the earth, and are
 

With constant drinking fresh and fair;
 

The sea itself (which one would think
       
Should have but little need of drink)
 

Drinks twice ten thousand rivers up,
 

So fill’d that they o’erflow the cup.
 

The busy Sun (and one would guess
 

By ’s drunken fiery face no less)
       
Drinks up the sea, and when he’s done,
 

The Moon and Stars drink up the Sun:
 

They drink and dance by their own light,
 

They drink and revel all the night:
 

Nothing in Nature’s sober found,
       
But an eternal health goes round.
 

Fill up the bowl, then, fill it high,
 

Fill all the glasses there—for why
 

Should every creature drink but I?
 

Why, man of morals, tell me why?


And I, for one, am too utterly charmed to worry about science and logic and such dry stuff as that!
 
 
 
Word To Use Today: thirsty. This word has been used in English for a long time. The Old English form was thyrstan, and before that there was a Latin word torrēre, which is also something to do with it.
 

 

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