Cup of Tea

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h2 id="id00440" style="margin-top: 4em"> A CUP OF TEA.</h2> <p id="id00441">  I have sipped, with drooping lashes,<br/> Dreamy draughts of Verzenay;<br/> I have flourished brandy-smashes<br/> In the wildest sort of way;<br/> I have joked with "Tom and Jerry"<br/> Till wee hours ayont the twal'—<br/> But I've found my tea the very<br/> Safest tipple of them all!<br/></p> <p id="id00442">  'Tis a mystical potation<br/> That exceeds in warmth of glow<br/> And divine exhilaration<br/> All the drugs of long ago—<br/> All of old magicians' potions—<br/> Of Medea's filtered spells—<br/> Or of fabled isles and oceans<br/> Where the Lotos-eater dwells!<br/></p> <p id="id00443">  Though I've reveled o'er late lunches<br/> With <i>blasé</i> dramatic stars,<br/> And absorbed their wit and punches<br/> And the fumes of their cigars—<br/> Drank in the latest story,<br/> With a cock-tail either end,—<br/> I have drained a deeper glory<br/> In a cup of tea, my friend.<br/></p> <p id="id00444">  Green, Black, Moyune, Formosa,<br/> Congou, Amboy, Pingsuey—<br/> No odds the name it knows—ah!<br/> Fill a cup of it for me!<br/> And, as I clink my china<br/> Against your goblet's brim,<br/> My tea in steam shall twine a<br/> Fragrant laurel round its rim.<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />