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Text: Edgar Allan Poe, "[Lines on Ale]," About July 10, 1848





[[Lines on Ale]]


Fill with mingled cream and amber,
    I will drain that glass again.
Such hilarious visions clamber
    Through the chamber of my brain —
Quaintest thoughts — queerest fancies
    Come to life and fade away;
What care I how time advances?
    I am drinking ale today.









Notes:

This poem was attributed to Poe by Thomas Ollive Mabbott in 1939, and again in 1969. The original manuscript supposedly hung on the wall of the Washington Tavern in Lowell, Massachusetts for many years. It was apparently last seen around 1892. It was recalled from memory by a former bartender there about 1939. Although of questionable origin, the attribution has some merit and has not been seriously opposed.

[Alternate versions of some lines of the poem might have read as follows:]

    Filled with mingled cream and amber,
        I will fill that glass again
            [....]
    Faintest thoughts — queerest fancies
            [....]







 
[S:1 - recalled, 1848 (1939)] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Poems - Lines on Ale (A)