When you came you were like red wine and honey, <br />And the taste of you burnt my mouth with its sweetness. <br />Now you are like morning bread-- <br />Smooth and pleasant, <br />I hardly taste you at all, for I know your savour, <br />But I am completely nourished. <br /> <br />--AMY LOWELL, in The Chimæra. <br /> <br />When I wuz courtin' Annie, she wuz honey an' red wine, <br />She made me feel all jumpy, did that ol' sweetheart o' mine; <br />Wunst w'en I went to Crawfordsville, on one o' them there trips, <br />I kissed her--an' the burnin' taste wuz sizzlin' on my lips. <br />An' now I've married Annie, an' I see her all the time, <br />I do not feel the daily need o' bustin' into rhyme. <br />An' now the wine-y taste is gone, fer Annie's always there, <br />An' I take her fer granted now, the same ez sun an' air. <br />But though the honey taste wuz sweet, an' though the wine wuz strong, <br />Yet ef I lost the sun an' air, I couldn't git along.<br /><br />Franklin P. Adams<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/if-amy-lowell-had-been-james-whitcomb-riley/
