Eat, Drink, and Be Merry: Poems About Food and Drink

by Peter Washington (Editor)

Eating and drinking and the rituals that go with them are at least as important as loving in most people’s lives, yet for every hundred anthologies of poems about love, hardly one is devoted to the pleasures of the table. Eat, Drink, and Be Merry abundantly fills the gap.

All kinds of foods and beverages are laid out in these pages, along with picnics and banquets, intimate suppers and quiet dinners, noisy parties and public celebrations–in poems by Horace, Catullus, Hafiz, Rumi, Rilke, Moore, Nabokov, Updike, Mandelstam, Stevens, and many others. From Sylvia Plath’s ecstatic vision of juice-laden berries in “Blackberrying” to D. H. Lawrence’s lush celebration of “Figs,” from the civilized comfort of Noël Coward’s “Something on a Tray” to the salacious provocation of Swift’s “Oysters,” from Li Po on “Drinking Alone” to Baudelaire on “The Soul of the Wine,” and from Emily Dickinson’s “Forbidden Fruit” to Elizabeth Bishop’s “A Miracle for Breakfast,” Eat, Drink, and Be Merry serves up a tantalizing and variegated literary feast.

Genres: Poetry, Food, Anthologies

256 pages, Hardcover

First published April 3, 2003

Reviews

[Kem White · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a tasty (ha, ha) anthology of poems about food and drink. Washington, the editor, has done a good job making his selections. Some of the poems are old, some recent. This is a fun collection and it is definitely worth adding to your "Pocket Poets" collection. Some of my favorites are: Burns' "John Barleycorn", Plath's "Blackberrying", Drinkwater's "Moonlit Apples", and Wylie's "Wild Peaches." There were many others that I liked. There were some clinkers for me: Wilbur's "A Voice from Under the Table" and Clampitt's "Gooseberry Fool" being two. Interestingly, Hilaire Belloc wrote one of my favorites in this collection - "On Food" - and one of my least favorites, "Henry King." It's fun to see how and editor gathers poems about a particular topic. You wouldn't think there would be all that many poems about food and drink. But editor Washington has done an admirable job.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

In celebration of National Poetry Month, I read this one for book club. I haven't read a poetry book based on a specific theme for awhile, so this one was fun to just pick up whenever I had a spare moment. I liked the mix of contemporary and classic, and the divisions of sections (Square Meals, Fruits, Liquor is Quicker) made sense.

My favorites from this one are:

"The Soul of the Wine" by Baudelaire (I love that it is told from the wine's pov)
"An Invitation to an Invitation by Catullus (Rather naughty fun, that one)
"Mushrooms" by Sylvia Plath

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

My favorite from Elinor Wylie:

Wild Peaches
When the world turns completely upside down
You say we’ll emigrate to the Eastern Shore
Aboard a river-boat from Baltimore;
We’ll live among wild peach trees, miles from town,
You’ll wear a coonskin cap, and I a gown
Homespun, dyed butternut’s dark gold color.
Lost, like your lotus-eating ancestor,
We’ll swim in mill and honey till we drown.

The winter will be short, the summer long,
The autumn amber-hued, sunny and hot,
Tasting of cider and scuppernong;
All seasons sweet, but autumn best of all.
The squirrels in their silver fur will fall
Like falling leaves, like fruit, before your shot.

[Johanna Beachy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a hard time reading this book. Technically it was about food and drink, but I felt that much of the poetry was not particularly good. It followed no meter or structure and many of the poems were genuinely hard to read. One in particular had a sentence that went on for an entire page. Again, this is an opinion post.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is my least favorite book out of the ones I read so far. There are some good poems in it, but few excited. That may be more me and my relationship to food than the poets.

[Elisabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection is very underwhelming. There are just too few highlights to rate this any higher.

[Sarah Dunmire · Rating 3 out of 5]

The right kind of poetry to read for Thanksgiving! I liked 26 of these poems. Not a ton but enough to keep it.

[Calam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Candy
Is dandy
But liquor
Is quicker.

- Ogden Nash: "Reflection on Ice-Breaking"

Almost 250 pages of poetry on food and drink, what's not to like?!

[Black Tea Lady ☕️📚 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Qué antología tan deliciosa!! La comida no sólo es alimento del cuerpo sino que también del alma. Es un acompañante y complemento para cada experiencia en la vida. La comida y la bebida nos acompaña en reuniones familiares y con amigos, es alegría en fiestas y celebraciones, evoca recuerdos como a Marcel Proust y sus magdalenas que le recordaban tiempos pasados en Combray. La comida puede ser sensual y provocativa a los sentidos, puede ser refrescante y energizante. Los poemas de éste libro despiertan recuerdos y emociones de épocas mejores que todos hemos experimentado en diversas formas en algún momento en nuestra vida. Siempre es bueno leer poesía y esta antología es una de mis favoritas.

[Noemi Goodson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading the book on Poems about food and drink. I will not see food the same way again. People don't really enjoy eating anymore there is always a rush when it comes to eating. I couldn't even imagine trying to describe a fruit or just the company or the feelings of pleasure when you really enjoy eating something good. There is a lot of talent here to be able to write poems like these. I would recommend this book to anyone to read just for fun if a person has not read any books on poems. Noemi

[Bonny · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are only so many great poems about food. Thankfully, many of them are here in this volume, but so are many not so great poems about food. I found myself looking ahead, searching for the great ones.

[Jbondandrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was truly a delightful little book and was well titled. I very much enjoyed each poem, some more than others.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A entertaining set of poems from both ancient and modern times dealing with everything food no drink (and food and love) related. It is entertaining and mostly light.