Quatrain 34
Quatrain 34 of 75
“Then to this earthen Bowl did I adjourn
My Lip the secret Well of Life to learn:
And Lip to Lip it murmur'd—"While you live,
Drink!—for once dead you never shall return."”
Reflection · Summer
The earthen bowl — not crystal, not gold. Clay. The same substance as the person drinking from it, the same material that will receive the drinker in the end. Lip to Lip between the human mouth and the clay rim, two things made of the same earth briefly in contact, and the bowl whispering its secret: Drink. While you live. Not: drink for the pleasure of it, not: drink to drown the sorrow of it. Drink because you are alive and the drinking is the condition of the living.
In summer this verse is instruction in the full use of the season. The wine is cold and real. Your particular lips — your particular presence in this particular summer — are the current installment in a chain of drinkers that the bowl is whispering to you about.