Sparkling and Bright

SPARKLING and bright in liquid light

Does the wine our goblets gleam in,

With hue as red as rosy bed

Which a bee would choose to dream in.

   Then fill to-night with hearts as light,

      To loves as gat and fleeting

   As bubbles that swim on the beaker's brim,

      And break on the lips while meeting.

O! if Mirth might arrest the flight

Of Time through Life's dominions,

We here awhile would now beguile

The graybeard of his pinions,

   To drink to-night with hearts as light,

      To loves as gay and fleeting

   As bubbles that swim on the beaker's brim,

      And break on the lips while meeting.

But since delight can't tempt the wight,

Nor fond regret delay him,

   We'll drink to-night with hearts as light,

      To loves as gay and fleeting

   As bubbles that swim on the beaker's brim,

      And break on the lips while meeting.

Charles Fenno Hoffman