Wonders of Tea

In a similar vein to my previous quotes post I’ve found a poem by a Chinese gent by the name of Lu T’ung who’s titled this piece: “Tea Drinking”. Here’s the full text and I’m sure you’ll agree with his sentiments.

Tea Drinking

The first cup moistens my lips and throat;

The second cup breaks my loneliness;

The third cup searches my barren entrail but to find therein some thousand volumes
of odd ideographs;

The fourth cup raises a slight perspiration-all the wrongs of life pass out through my pores; At the fifth cup I am purified;

The sixth cup calls me to the realms of the immortals.

The seventh cup-ah, but I could take no more! I only feel the breath of the cool wind that raises in my sleeves.

Where is Elysium? Let me ride on this sweet breeze and waft away thither.

Lu T’ung

[Update]: It turns out – after some research – that Lu Tung was a Tang dynasty poet who was more famous for his love of tea than he was his poetry! Sounds like a wise man indeed if you ask me.

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Mr Gladstone was one of the greatest Prime Ministers of the UK from the late 19th Century. Often being the inspiration for other greats like Winston Churchill. He was very fond of his tea and I recently stumbled across a poem he wrote during his PM years that goes:

Tea, The Cure – All
If you are cold, tea will warm you.
If you are too heated, tea will cool you.
If you are too depressed, tea will cheer you.
If you are too exhausted, tea will calm you!

I think he made a better politician than a poet but his sentiment about the great leaf is very true indeed.

William Gladstones autobiography can be obtained at Amazon.

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