The Gods and the Girls [poem by Grant Hervey]

[Editor: This poem by Grant Hervey was published in Australians Yet and Other Verses, 1913.]

The Gods and the Girls

There’s a toast that has waited proposing
Since the first wine was pressed from the grape ;
’Tis a toast better far than the prosing
Of the King and the Crown and the Crape !
There’s a pledge fit for men waits a drinking —
’Tis a toast set with bright eyes and curls ;
Set the hearts and the glass-rims a-clinking —
Fill them up ! To the Gods and the Girls !

’Tis a toast for a man’s heart to cherish,
’Tis a pledge for a true soul to sing ;
It’s a toast good to drink till we perish
And the arms cease to clasp and to cling !
’Tis a toast for the strong and the loyal —
Who refuse it are outcasts and churls ;
’Tis a hail to the ones truly royal —
So we drink to the Gods and the Girls.

Set a foot on the chair and the table,
Bring the best spidered wine in the bins ;
Now a cheer that shall half lift the gable —
Thank the Gods one and all for our sins !
For we owe them to Bacchus and Cupid
They invented our vices, our pearls ;
Man without them is muddy and stupid —
Ho ! we drink to the Gods and the Girls !

’Tis a toast to the twin founts of pleasure —
A libation to Jove and to Love ;
’Tis a toast for the vine’s purplest measure,
Poured out to the good Gods above.
He who drinks not is base and a varlet,
So we drain to Sweet Life as it whirls ;
Fill them now with a liquor of scarlet —
Long life to the Gods and the Girls !

Source:
Grant Hervey. Australians Yet and Other Verses, Thomas C. Lothian, Melbourne, 1913, pages 7-8