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 _blase_ 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.