Hence Burgundy, Claret, and Port
Hence Burgundy, Claret, and Port - meaning Summary
Imagination as Intoxicant
The speaker rejects ordinary wines and claims a higher intoxication: drinking the sky and sunlight as metaphors for imagination and poetic inspiration. Sensory exaltation produces a "Delphian pain," a visionary ache linked to Apollo. The poem ends with an invitation to a companion, Caius, to join in a shared creative rapture on a hill, where minds entwine with divine glory rather than earthly pleasure.
Read Complete AnalysesHence burgundy, claret, and port, Away with old hock and madeira! Too earthly ye are for my sport; There’s a beverage brighter and clearer! Instead of a pitiful rummer, My wine overbrims a whole summer; My bowl is the sky, And I drink at my eye, Till I feel in the brain A Delphian pain – Then follow, my Caius, then follow! On the green of the hill, We will drink our fill Of golden sunshine, Till our brains intertwine With the glory and grace of Apollo!
Written on 31 January 1818. First published in 1848.
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