“Drink to me only with thine eyes,

And I will pledge with mine;

Or leave a kiss but in the cup,

And I’ll not look for wine.”

– Ben Jonson ‘To Celia’

 

“A little saint best fits a little shrine,

A little prop best fits a little vine,

As my small cruse best fits my little wine.”

-Robert Herrick ‘A Ternary of Littles’

 

“Love is that liquor sweet and most divine,

Which my God feels as blood, but I, as wine.”

-George Herbert ‘The Agonie’

 

“Lo! The poor toper whose untutored sense,

Sees bliss in ale, and can with wine dispense;

Whose head proud fancy never taught to steer,

Beyond the muddy ecstasies of beer.”

-George Crabbe ‘The Library’
“And now I am come, with this lost love of mine,

To lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine.”

-Sir Walter Scott ‘Marmion’

 

“Here is wine

Alive with sparkles – never, I aver,

Since Ariadne was a vintager,

So cool a purple.”

-John Keats ‘Endymion’

 

“You’ll have no scandal while you dine,

But honest talk and wholesome wine.”

-Alfred, Lord Tennyson ‘To the Revd F.D. Maurice’

 

“All love at first, like generous wine,

Ferments and frets, until ‘tis fine;

But when ‘tis settled on the lee,

And from th’ impurer matter free,

Becomes the richer still, the older,

And process the pleasanter, the colder.”

-Samuel ‘Hudibras’ Butler ‘Genuine Remains Miscellaneous Thoughts’

 

“Wine is as good as life to a man, if it be drunk

Moderately: what life is then to a man that is

without wine? For it was made to make men glad.”

-Ecc. 31:27

 

“Fan the sinking flame of hilarity with the wing of

Friendship; and pass the rosy wine.”

-Charles Dickens ‘The Old Curiosity Shop’