Ergo Bibamus!

Ergo Bibamus!

FOR a praiseworthy[53]object we’re now gather’d here,

So,brethren,sing:ERGO BIBAMUS!

Tho’talk may be hush’d,yet the glasses ring clear,

Remember then:ERGO BIBAMUS!

In truth‘tis an old,’tis an excellent word,

With its sound so befitting each bosom is stirr’d,

And an echo the festal hall filling is heard,

A glorious ERGO BIBAMUS!

I saw mine own love in her beauty so rare,

And bethought me of:ERGO BIBAMUS;

So I gently approach’d,and she let me stand there,

While I help’d myself,thinking:BIBAMUS!

And when she’s appeased,and will clasp you and kiss,

Or when those embraces and kisses ye miss,

Take refuge[54],till sound is some worthier bliss,

In the comforting ERGO BIBAMUS!

I am call’d by my fate far away from each friend;

Ye loved ones,then:ERGO BIBAMUS!

With wallet light-laden from hence I must wend.

So double our ERGO BIBAMUS!

Whate’er to his treasures the niggard[55]may add,

Yet regard for the joyous will ever be had,

For gladness lends over its charms to the glad,

So,brethren,sing;ERGO BIBAMUS!

And what shall we say of to-day as it flies?

I thought but of:ERGO BIBAMUS

’Tis one of those truly that seldom arise,

So again and again sing:BIBAMUS!

For joy through a wide-open portal it guides,

Bright glitter the clouds,as the curtain divides,

An a form,a divine one,to greet us in glides,

While we thunder our:ERGO BIBAMUS!

1810.