Poetry Month, Day 4, George Arnold, "Beer"

My family owns all ten volumes of a 1929 Funk and Wagnalls publication called The World's 1000 Best Poems. Because of course we do. I was looking for a poem by Matthew Arnold, but "Dover Beach" wasn't in the book (which makes me question the rather grandiose title, frankly, but no matter).  However, I did discover this poem, an absolute gem!

Beer

Related Poem Content Details

BY GEORGE ARNOLD

Here, 

    With my beer 

I sit, 

While golden moments flit: 

    Alas! 

    They pass 

Unheeded by: 

And, as they fly, 

I, 

Being dry, 

    Sit, idly sipping here 

    My beer. 

O, finer far 

Than fame, or riches, are 

The graceful smoke-wreaths of this free cigar! 

    Why 

    Should I 

    Weep, wail, or sigh? 

    What if luck has passed me by? 

What if my hopes are dead,—  

My pleasures fled? 

    Have I not still 

    My fill 

Of right good cheer,— 

Cigars and beer? 

    Go, whining youth, 

    Forsooth! 

Go, weep and wail, 

Sigh and grow pale, 

    Weave melancholy rhymes 

    On the old times, 

Whose joys like shadowy ghosts appear,—

But leave me to my beer! 

    Gold is dross,— 

    Love is loss,—

So, if I gulp my sorrows down, 

Or see them drown 

In foamy draughts of old nut-brown, 

Then do I wear the crown, 

    Without the cross!

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Look at that rhyme scheme! So much fun to read out loud - go on, read it out loud right now. I'll wait. 

Did you keep a straight face? Because I didn't - the poem is both grandiose AND, at the SAME TIME, entirely unpretentious. Brilliant!

 Look at the way the poem dribbles down the page, like the foam down the side of a beer glass. As a small time home brewer (have I mentioned that before? I brew beer, infrequently, but to reasonably good reviews), I appreciate the subject matter (not so much the cigars - but I'd smoke a free cigar, if one were offered). An absolute gem of a poem - not, perhaps, one for the ages (one of the 1000 best poems! In the world! [as of 1929. according to Funk and Wagnalls.]) but an enjoyable read. I'll be dipping into the collection again, and I'll take a look at "Dover Beach" later.