To Celia is a poem first published after March 1616 by Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson

Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...

. It was set to music after 1770, in the form of the song Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes

Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes

"Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes" is a popular English song, set to the lyrics of Ben Jonson's 1616 poem "Song. To Celia." John Addington Symonds demonstrated in The Academy 16 that almost every line has its counterpart in the Epistles of Philostratus, notably Epistle xxx...

, the poem's first line.

The Poem

Drink to me only with thine eyes

And I will pledge with mine.

Or leave a kiss but in the cup

And I'll not look for wine.


The thirst that from the soul doth rise

Doth ask a drink divine;

But might I of Jove's nectar sup,

I would not change for thine.


I sent thee late a rosy wreath,

Not so much hon'ring thee

As giving it a hope that there

It could not withered be;


But thou thereon did'st only breathe,

And sent'st it back to me,

Since when it grows and smells, I swear

Not of itself, but thee.