DRINK TO ME ONLY WITH THINE EYES

Songs and memories, memories and songs.  As Billy sang in ‘If I Loved You’ in “Carousel”, round in circles I go.

I was firmly in the present watching a movie, though I must admit the movie was steeped in the past. It was “Emma” based on Jane Austen’s 1815 novel of the same name about a cocky 20-year old girl whose main hobby was matchmaking for her friends and meddling in their lives. I was enjoying the period costumes and the manner in which people conducted themselves in those days when a song was featured in the movie which transported me back to school in the early 1950s. . 

The song was “Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes” taught to us by Father Mackessack in his music class in St. Xavier's, Jaipur. Its lyrics are from a poem, “To Celia”, written by Ben Jonson and published in 1616. Despite its age of 400 years plus, it retains its charm and appeal.  As recent as 2006, Johnny Cash revived it in a popular rendition.

The words are metaphorical about pure love, emotion and feelings. The poet asks Celia to drink to him with her eyes, that is, give him an engaging look, which would be enough for him to pledge his eternal love. And her kiss within the cup is all that he desires instead of earthly wine or even the nectar of the king of gods. 

That’s enough from me; over to Ben Jonson:

“Drink to me only with thine eyes, and I will pledge with mine,

Or leave a kiss within the cup, and I will not ask for wine.

The thirst that from the soul doth rise, doth ask a drink divine;

But might I of Jove’s nectar sup, I would not change for thine.”

An ethereal song.