The forthcoming Ilminster Literary Festival (now in its 4th year)
gives me pause for thought in relation to how, over the centuries, an army of
talented novelists, poets and playwrights, in putting pen to paper, have chosen
wine as the subject in which to wax lyrical.
In many ways this
is hardly surprising. Wine is the ceremonial liquid of choice, playing a
significant part in the Christian eucharist, and we all know the story of Jesus
turning water into wine.
Drinking songs
abound, and Shakespeare’s references to drink are abundant -
“I drink to the
general joy of the whole table” - Macbeth Act 3, Scene 4
“Good company,
good wine, good welcome can make good people” - Henry VIII, Act 1 Scene 4
When proposing a
toast, we clink glasses as we take a drink and are bound together, for a
fleeting moment, in one single act where everyone plays their part in the
stories told; births, deaths, marriages, anniversaries, victories, defeats,
graduations, coronations, in honour of someone, in expressing goodwill or
celebration of an event.
Here are some
snippets from my favourite authors to stimulate your thirst, both for the
written word, and a glass of wine!
A Drinking
Song, W.B. Yeats
Wine comes in at
the mouth
And love comes in
at the eye;
That’s all we
know for truth
Before we grow
old and die.
I lift the glass
to my mouth,
I look at you,
and sigh.
A Moveable
Feast, Ernest Hemingway
Well known for
his love affair with alcohol, this set of memoirs paints a vivid picture of
Hemingway's time as a struggling young writer as part of the American
expatriate circle of writers in the 1920s.
Drinking Alone
Beneath The Moon, Li Po
In this Chinese
poem, written around 743AD, the poet finds himself alone …
‘Among the
blossoms, a single jar of wine.
No one else here,
I ladle it out myself.
Raising my cup, I
toast the bright moon,
and facing my
shadow makes friends three,
though moon has
never understood wine,
and shadow only
trails along behind me.’
I Bring An
Unaccustomed Wine, Emily Dickinson
This poem begins…
I bring an
unaccustomed wine
To lips long
parching, next to mine,
And summon them
to drink.
Ode to Wine,
Pablo Neruda
Such a sensual
poem ………..
‘A jug of wine,
and thou beside me
in the
wilderness,
sang the ancient
poet.
Let the wine
pitcher
add to the kiss
of love its own.
My darling,
suddenly
the line of your
hip
becomes the
brimming curve
of the wine
goblet,
your breast is
the grape cluster,
your nipples are
the grapes,
the gleam of
spirits lights your hair,
and your navel is
a chaste seal
stamped on the
vessel of your belly,
your love an
inexhaustible
cascade of wine,
light that
illuminates my senses,
the earthly
splendour of life.
The Soul of
Wine, Charles Baudelaire
One eve in the
bottle sang the soul of wine:
'Man, unto thee,
dear disinherited,
I sing a song of
love and light divine-
Prisoned in glass
beneath my seals of red.
……..
My nectar falls
in your fertility,
A precious seed
whose Sower is divine,
So from our love
is born rare poetry,
Thrusting towards
God the blossom on its vine!'
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