Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Why coffee is better than wine or ale

Stumbled across a great poem from the late 17th century, all about the virtues of coffee over the detrimental effects of boozing:

Coffee

When the sweet Poison of the Treacherous Grape
Had acted on the world a general rape; 
Drowning our Reason and our souls 
In such deep seas of large o'erflowing bowls, 

When foggy Ale, leavying up mighty trains
Of muddy vapours, had besieg'd our Brains,
Then Heaven in Pity
First sent amongst us this All-Healing Berry,

Coffee arrives, that grave and wholesome Liquor,
That heals the stomach, makes the genius quicker,
Relieves the memory, revives the sad, 
And cheers the Spirits, without making mad. 






For even more delightful ramblings about coffee from this period, read more here: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A43690.0001.001?view=toc

And there is a modern overview here: http://www.web-books.com/Classics/ON/B0/B701/15MB701.html

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