Dash the Wine-Cup Away!

Dash the wine-cup away! though its sparkle should be
More bright than the gems that lie hid in the sea;
For a siren, unseen by thine eyes, lurketh there,
Who would lure thee through pleasure to woe and despair.

Some who once walked with us wuth untremulous feet
Have yielded their souls to that lovely deceit,
And, forfeiting honor and manhood, have died,
In the glow of their youth and the flush of their pride.

And others still linger to darken a name
Once brightened with love, but now wedded to shame;
Poor tempest-tost wrecks on the ocean of woes,
The grief of their friends and the scorn of their foes.

Wherever the cup of confusion is poured,
In the cellar of want or at luxury’s board—
From palace and cottage, from hovel and hall,
A wail goeth up to the FATHER of all!

Then rally! then rally! ye wise and ye good,
Come up in your strength, and roll back the dark flood
Ere your treasures are wrecked in its desolate path,
As it sweeps o’er your homes in its terror and wrath—

Ere the woe shall be yours which smote Ephraim of old
And our glory shall be like a tale that is told,
And the wolf, coming back to our cities, shall howl
To the mournfuler cry of the bittern and owl!