Reely's Poetry Blog

by JACQUES DELILLE (1738–1813)

COFFEE affords a good restoring draught,
Which clears the fumes of wine too freely quaffed;
By her you gain, when you the table quit,
A calm more courteous, and a brighter wit:

And soon recovered, by her powerful aid,
You are not of a second feast afraid.
She, by the god of verse, is praised and loved;
The poet's genius is by her improved.
Your frigid rhymers, if at times inspired,
Write their best lines by Coffee's fragrance fired.
She can enliven philosophic plan,
And make an analyst a pleasant man.
Statesmen, through her, well feasted and content,
Form happy schemes of better government.
Knowledge sometimes to journalists she brings
Of court intrigues, and deep designs of kings.
Peace, truces, wars, she to his dreams can show,
And lets him, for six sous, the world o'erthrow.