Song of Bacchus [poem by Louisa Lawson]

[Editor: This poem by Louisa Lawson was published in “The Lonely Crossing” and Other Poems (1905).]

Song of Bacchus.

I laugh ha, ha! and I laugh ho, ho!
For I think it a goodly thing
To curse the high and to curse the low,
And to rule both Beggar and King.

The light will fly from the brightest eye,
And the bloom from the fairest cheek;
And mirth will die in a sob or sigh,
Where I reve and ramp and reek.

I fill with lust and I poison trust,
And I taint the lover’s caress;
I love to hate, I’m insatiate
In my hunger for lawlessness.

I take from its kind the brightest mind
And make it with idiots link;
And oft I fly on the gallows high
A grim effigy done by Drink

I curse the lives of innocent wives
Who could never know ought of me;
But what care I for their blighted lives
Nor the terrible wrongs I see?

I bleach the hair and I line with care
Many faces with thoughts of me;
And flout the prayer that my hand would spare
The pride of the family tree.

I curse the land, and I curse the sea,
While the poets my praises sing;
And Satan is wrath; he envies me
All the souls of the saints I bring.

Source:
Louisa Lawson, “The Lonely Crossing” and Other Poems, Sydney: Dawn Office, [1905], pp. 19-20

Editor’s notes:
Bacchus = (also known as Dionysos) in Greek mythology, the god of wine and of the grape harvest

oft = (archaic) often

ought = (an alternative spelling of “aught”) anything

ramp = to rob in a violent manner; to behave or move in an angry and threatening or violent manner; to raise up on one’s legs in a threatening posture; to advance in a menacing or excited manner, with arms raised (or with forelegs raised)

reve = (an archaic spelling of “reave”) plunder, pillage; rob; take by force

wrath = (archaic) very angry, wrathful, wroth; stormy, turbulent, violent (can also mean: anger, fury, ire)