A Cup Of Tea.

I have sipped, with drooping lashes,             Dreamy draughts of Verzenay;         I have flourished brandy-smashes             In the wildest sort of way;         I have joked with "Tom and Jerry"             Till wee hours ayont the twal' -         But I've found my tea the very             Safest tipple of them all!         'Tis a mystical potation             That exceeds in warmth of glow         And divine exhilaration             All the drugs of long ago -         All of old magicians' potions -             Of Medea's filtered spells -         Or of fabled isles and oceans             Where the Lotos-eater dwells!         Though I've reveled o'er late lunches             With blas dramatic stars,         And absorbed their wit and punches             And the fumes of their cigars -         Drank in the latest story,             With a cock-tail either end, -         I have drained a deeper glory             In a cup of tea, my friend.         Green, Black, Moyune, Formosa,             Congou, Amboy, Pingsuey -         No odds the name it knows - ah!             Fill a cup of it for me!         And, as I clink my china             Against your goblet's brim,         My tea in steam shall twine a             Fragrant laurel round its rim.