Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/115

THE BALLAD OF LAGER BIER There still they sing their Gaudeamus,

And see the road to glory clear;

But taps, that in our day were famous,

Have given place to Lager Bier.

Now, settled in this island-city,

We let new fashions have their weight;

Though none too lucky—more 's the pity!—

Can still beguile our humble state

By finding time to come together,

In every season of the year,

In sunny, wet, or windy weather,

And clink our mugs of Lager Bier.

On winter evenings, cold and blowing,

'T is good to order "'alf-and-'alf";

To watch the fire-lit pewter glowing,

And laugh a hearty English laugh;

Or even a sip of mountain whiskey

Can raise a hundred phantoms dear

Of days when boyish blood was frisky,

And no one heard of Lager Bier.

We've smoked in summer with Oscanyan,

Cross-legged in that defunct bazaar,

Until above our heads the banyan

Or palm-tree seemed to spread afar;

And, then and there, have drunk his sherbet,

Tinct with the roses of Cashmere:

That Orient calm! who would disturb it

With Norseland calls for Lager Bier?

There 's Paris chocolate,—nothing sweeter,

At midnight, when the dying strain,

Just warbled by La Favorita,

Still hugs the music-haunted brain; 85