Published in the Norfolk-Portsmouth Journal of May, 1788, the following anonymous poem pays tribute to Virginia’s agriculture and viticulture. With Virginia’s wine industry booming in recent years, and with the Town Point Virginia Wine Festival taking place today in Norfolk, I thought the following poem appropriate:
The Blessings of Corn and Wine
With Sheaves full of ears, and the juice of the vine,
We extinguish the flame of our care,
While grateful, our souls in sweet union keep time,
Nor e’er harbor a thought of despair.
Then morn, noon, and night, hail the blessings of Corn,
Still the blessings of Wine too we hail
One supports Nature’s call, our fields doth adorn;–
But for Wine, our spirits wou’d fail.
The sailor he fears not the roar of the seas,
But with courage all danger surmounts;
O’er his biscuit and cann he reposes at ease,
And with pleasure each action recounts.
The soldier is happy in dreadful campaign,
If blest with these bounties of Heav’n;
His bread is a jewel, with a glass of Champagne;
What cou’d greater to mortals be giv’n?
The peasant o’erjoy’d sees his fields teem with corn,
On the hills he beholds the rich vine;
With gratitude fervent, he rises each morn,
All creation his praises rejoin
By the seat of his brow, he diligent gains
The bread which for nourishment’s sent;
The fruit of the vintage rewards all his pains,
While at ev’ning his heart feels content.
Then may all mankind eat the bread of ripe Corn,
May they temp’rately drink of the vine;
Let all the whole race, from the child that’s new born,
To old age, praise the hand that’s divine.
May all, sweet Content, catch a branch of thy tree,
While soft Peace in our dwel’ings is found,
So shall we, all happy and joyous live free
And our souls diffuse pleasure around.
