Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/117

THE BALLAD OF LAGER BIER This primal portion each shall swallow

At one draught, for a pioneer;

And thus a ritual usage follow

Of all who honor Lager Bier.

Glass after glass in due succession,

Till, borne through midriff, heart, and brain,

He mounts his throne and takes possession,—

The genial Spirit of the grain!

Then comes the old Berserker madness

To make each man a priest and seer,

And, with a Scandinavian gladness,

Drink deeper draughts of Lager Bier!

Go, maiden, fill again our glasses!

While, with anointed eyes, we scan

The blouse Teutonic lads and lasses,

The Saxon—Pruss—Bohemian,

The sanded floor, the cross-beamed gables,

The ancient Flemish paintings queer,

The rusty cup-stains on the tables,

The terraced kegs of Lager Bier.

And is it Göttingen, or Gotha,

Or Munich's ancient Wagner Brei,

Where each Bavarian drinks his quota,

And swings a silver tankard high?

Or some ancestral Gast-Haus lofty

In Nuremberg—of famous cheer

When Hans Sachs lived, and where, so oft, he

Sang loud the praise of Lager Bier?

For even now some curious glamour

Has brought about a misty change!

Things look, as in a moonlight dream, or

Magician's mirror, quaint and strange. 87