Nationality in Drinks by Robert Browning
A speaker mourns a claret flask sunk in a pond, comparing its descent to a lively Frenchwoman plunged into death. Tokay is personified as a swaggering little castle guard who challenges drought. Off Cape Trafalgar, a speaker toasts Nelson with British beer and repeats the captain's account of tar on Nelson's coat from leaning against the rigging.
By Robert Browning · Genre: Poetry · 515 words
First lines
I
My heart sank with our Claret-flask, / Just now, beneath the heavy sedges / That serve this pond's black face for mask; / And still at yonder broken edges / O' the hole, where up the bubbles glisten, / After my heart I look and listen.
What this Textopian page supports
Nationality in Drinks is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Browning, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Browning
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Poetry
- Length: 515 words
- Structure: 1 section, 7 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Difficult (10th-12th Grade)
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- Work identity for Nationality in Drinks by Robert Browning
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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Genres
- Poetry — Three numbered sections use rhyming verse to present a flask's loss, Tokay's imagined swagger, and a toast to Nelson.
Tags
wine · beer · drinking · personification · naval remembrance