Let others quaff the ruby wine, <br />I'll drink from gushing springs, <br />Nor bow again at folly's shrine, <br />For misery it brings. <br />I'll seek no more the festal board, <br />I'll drink from gushing springs, <br />Nor bow again at folly's shrine, <br />For misery it brings. <br /> <br /> <br />I'll seek no more the festalboard, <br />Where the midnight taper gleams; <br />Nor mingle with the drunken horde, <br />But drink from mountain streams. <br />The Temperance Pledge, I'll hold it strong, <br />And bear the drunkard's jeers; <br />Nor sing the bacchanalian song, <br />But dry a young wife's tears. <br /> <br /> <br />I'll spurn the blind, besotted crowd, <br />I'll scorn the drunkard's sneers, <br />And Temperance I'll proclaim aloud, <br />And dry a mother's tears. <br />The limpid nectar I will quaff <br />From brooks, nor seek to roam <br />Where rings the reveller's drunken laugh, <br />But stay content at home. <br /> <br /> <br />I'll dash the poisoned chalice down, <br />And swell the Temperance train; <br />No more shall wine my senses drown, <br />I'll be a man again.<br /><br />John Pierpont<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-vow-of-the-reclaimed/
