“Hey, Ho, When the Heart is Low”

 

 

 

Here’s a cup of my poppy wine;

See it bubble and see it shine!

Crushed from the ripest, dreamiest flow’r,

Drink, drink, and forget the hour—

        Hey, ho, when the heart is low!

 

See it bubble and see it shine,

Redder than grapes of the Southern vine,

Pain and sorrow and wild regret,

Drink, drink, drink and forget—

        Hey, ho, when the heart is low!

 

Crushed from the ripest, dreamiest flow’r,

A maid may drink it in her white bow’r;

Sweet, was thy lover unkind, untrue?

Drink, drink, and no longer rue—

        Hey, ho, when the heart is low!

 

Drink, drink and forget the hour,

Drink the wine of the poppy-flow’r!

Ye that sorrow and ye that weep,

Drink the cup of the long sweet sleep—

        Hey, ho, when the heart is low!

“Hey, Ho, When the Heart is Low” printed the Seattle Times newspaper, October 18, 1903, in Higginson’s literary column “Clover Leaves.” Clipping courtesy of the Ella Higginson Papers, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Heritage Resources, Western Washington University, Bellingham Washington.

 

---