RAUZAN MARGAUX.
TO GEORGE W. CURTIS.
(Easter Sunday, 1872.)
I.
O sage sentiment and sober!
O grave Malatromba of ours!
Come, cease to look stiff as a crowbar!
Come, strew your life's pathway with flowers!
But waste no bad claret your cash on;
For here is a brand you don't know;
'Tis only just coming in fashion;
They call it the Rauzan Margaux!
II.
So drop all your carpers and sharpers,
And let Civil Service go hang!
Leave "Justice" to lie for the Harpers;
Leave Forney the bolters to bang.
A truce to satirical pennings
At Fenton and Greeley & Co.,
Leave Schurz to be buttoned by Jennings;
You tackle this Rauzan Margaux!
III.
Rich velvet is lovely when sinking
Down a fair woman's back in a mass;
But velvet is better for drinking,
When you conjure it into a glass.
Once show it the road to your palate,
It glides with perennial flow,
And a touch that is sure to enthral it—
This soft-stepping Rauzan Margaux.
IV.
And the blood of the grape as it lingers
Through ruddy and readiest lips,
Shall strike, like a song of sweet singers,
To the soul of the sitter who sips,
Till we rival the topers of story,
Till we spurn all the dull and the slow,
And our thoughts stalk abroad in their glory,
Inspired by the Rauzan Margaux.
V.
For the soul of the Frenchman is in it;
This wine is a true child of Gaul;
It lifts up your heart like a linnet
To talk with the best of them all.
They say that the brook is but shallow—
The stream is pellucid, we know,
And rich recollections shall hallow
The stream of the Rauzan Margaux.
VI.
With every fresh glass they come clearer,
The scintillant sayings that shine,
The chaff that provokes not the hearer,
The wit that comes out with the wine,
The repartees' dexterous dashes,
The sparkles of spirit that glow,
(No truculent satire that lashes,)
These rise from the Rauzan Margaux.
VII.
But, alas! for our joys evanescent,
Our perishing home of a day!
Too soon flies the pleasantest present,
The fairest of flow'rets decay;
And fate, with sardonical banter,
Makes jest at the glass that is low—
We have finished our second decanter,
And drunk all the Rauzan Margaux.