Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup Formed from a Skull
Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup Formed from a Skull - meaning Summary
Toasts Beyond the Grave
Byron writes from the vantage of a skull turned into a drinking cup, arguing that its purpose—bringing pleasure and wit through wine—survives death. The speaker contrasts dignified conviviality with the degradation of burial and worms, urging the living to drink and celebrate while they can. The poem reframes posthumous usefulness: even after brains and bodies decay, the skull can still entertain, inspire wit, and join in revelry with the dead.
Read Complete AnalysesStart not nor deem my spirit fled: In me behold the only skull From which, unlike a living head, Whatever flows is never dull. I lived, I loved, I quaffed like thee; I died: let earth my bones resign: Fill up thou canst not injure me; The worm hath fouler lips than thine. Better to hold the sparkling grape Than nurse the earthworm’s slimy brood, And circle in the goblet’s shape The drink of gods than reptile’s food. Where once my wit, perchance, hath shone, In aid of others’ let me shine; And when, alas! our brains are gone, What nobler substitute than wine? Quaff while thou canst; another race, When thou and thine like me are sped, May rescue thee from earth’s embrace, And rhyme and revel with the dead. Why not since through life’s little day Our heads such sad effects produce? Redeemed from worms and wasting clay, This chance is theirs to be of use.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.