Song: To Celia by Ben Jonson

Form: Lyric | Year: 1616

Full Text

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 honouring thee
As giving it a hope, that there
   It could not withered be.
But thou thereon didst only breathe,
   And sent'st it back to me;
Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,
   Not of itself, but thee.

Overview

"Song: To Celia" is better known as "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes," the first line that became a popular song title. The poem makes a single argument across two stanzas: the beloved's essence is more intoxicating than wine and more life-giving than nature. Stanza one establishes the substitution — eyes for wine, a kiss for a drink, the soul's thirst for a divine beverage. Stanza two proves it with a story: the speaker sends a wreath, the beloved breathes on it and returns it, and the wreath now grows and smells of her instead of itself. What's remarkable is how Jonson transforms borrowed material. The poem is assembled almost entirely from prose passages in the Greek writer Philostratus's love letters. Jonson takes scattered compliments and fuses them into a seamless lyric with a logical structure: if her glance is better than wine (stanza 1), then her breath can resurrect dead flowers (stanza 2). The second claim is more extravagant than the first, but because the first has already been accepted, the escalation feels natural. The poem's simplicity is deceptive — it is carefully engineered to feel spontaneous.

Line-by-Line Analysis

Lines 1-4

"Drink to me only with thine eyes, / And I will pledge with mine" — a toast made without cups. "Pledge" means to return a toast, so the exchange is reciprocal: she drinks to him with her eyes, he pledges back with his. "Or leave a kiss but in the cup, / And I'll not look for wine" — the kiss is offered as a substitute for wine, but it's also a test of sufficiency. If her kiss is in the cup, he won't need actual wine. The implication: her affection is more intoxicating than alcohol.

Lines 5-8

"The thirst that from the soul doth rise / Doth ask a drink divine" — the thirst is spiritual, not physical, and demands something beyond ordinary refreshment. "But might I of Jove's nectar sup, / I would not change for thine" — even the gods' drink (nectar, which grants immortality) is inferior to hers. This is the stanza's boldest claim: the beloved's essence surpasses the divine. "Change" means exchange — he would not trade her kiss-in-the-cup for literal ambrosia.

Lines 9-12

"I sent thee late a rosy wreath" — the narrative pivot. The poem shifts from abstract claims to a concrete story. "Not so much honouring thee / As giving it a hope, that there / It could not withered be" — the wreath was sent not as a compliment but as an experiment. He wanted to see if proximity to her could prevent decay. The logic is charming: if her glance beats wine, maybe her presence beats death.

Lines 13-17

"But thou thereon didst only breathe, / And sent'st it back to me" — she didn't keep it. She merely breathed on it and returned it. "Since when it grows, and smells, I swear, / Not of itself, but thee" — the experiment succeeded beyond expectations. The wreath doesn't just survive; it grows. And its scent has changed — it smells of Celia, not of roses. Her breath has literally transformed nature. The final "thee" lands with perfect emphasis as the poem's last word, making the beloved the conclusion of every argument.

Themes

The beloved as superior to both wine and divine nectar
Love as transformation — changing the nature of what it touches
Spiritual thirst versus physical thirst
The exchange of glances as a form of communion
The beloved's power over natural decay
Simplicity as persuasive strategy

Literary Devices

Conceit (Eyes as Wine): "Drink to me only with thine eyes, / And I will pledge with mine" — The entire first stanza sustains a metaphor in which glances replace drinks and a kiss replaces wine. The conceit is playful but internally consistent — every element of a toast is translated into erotic equivalents.
Hyperbole: "might I of Jove's nectar sup, / I would not change for thine" — Claiming the beloved's kiss surpasses the gods' immortality drink is extravagant, but the poem earns it through the cumulative logic of the first stanza. By the time we reach this claim, we're already in a world where eyes are cups.
Narrative Proof: "I sent thee late a rosy wreath... Since when it grows, and smells, I swear, / Not of itself, but thee" — The second stanza shifts from argument to story — it offers evidence. The wreath experiment "proves" the first stanza's claims. This makes the poem feel like it has a logical structure: thesis (stanza 1), demonstration (stanza 2).
Substitution Pattern: "I'll not look for wine," "I would not change for thine," "Not of itself, but thee" — Three times the poem replaces something ordinary or divine with the beloved. Wine yields to her kiss, nectar yields to her essence, the wreath's own scent yields to hers. Each substitution escalates the claim.
Ballad Meter: Alternating tetrameter and trimeter throughout — The simple alternating rhythm (4 beats / 3 beats) gives the poem its song-like quality. The regularity makes it feel effortless and inevitable — as though the argument flows naturally rather than being constructed.

Historical Context

Jonson published "Song: To Celia" in "The Forest" (1616), a collection within his folio "Works." The poem draws heavily on the "Epistles" of Philostratus, a 3rd-century Greek sophist whose prose love letters contain most of the poem's images — the drinking with eyes, the pledge, the wreath that takes on the beloved's scent. Jonson's achievement was synthesis: he turned scattered prose compliments into a unified lyric with a single argument. The poem became widely known as a song — set to music in the 18th century, it remained a popular parlor song for over two hundred years.