In Praise of Wine: A Translation from the Middle English of John Lydgate, OSB
by Jacob Riyeff



Wine, we praise your nine gracious virtues!
You comfort the heart and clear the weakened sight;
you gladden the spirit with mirth we can’t refuse.
You heat the constitution with your subtle bite;
you sharpen the wits and stoke courage in a fight.
You clean our wounds and refine our boorish state.
Wine, you provide our feasts with rubied light—
drunk in measure, you’re virtue’s very gate.





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