"O! Touch Not the Wine Cup, Dear Brother" (1866)
Words by Mrs. Mary Ann Kidder
Music by Henry Tucker
A New Temperance Ballad

1.
O touch not the wine cup, dear brother, I pray,
Though it sparkles so rosy and bright,
For I know you've been thinking of mother today,
And the letter she sent me last night.
Oh I feel that she wept when she wrote to her boys,
For I noticed a blot on each line.
Then come home with me now, for her sake, brother dear,
And touch not, oh taste not the wine.

CHORUS
Rosy wine (Touch not,) Rosy wine, (touch not,)
Round the dear heart 'twill cling like the vine.
And wither and soar all that's bright, brother dear,
Then touch not, oh taste not the wine.

2.
Remember our father who fell in the strife,
When the battle was raging so strong.
For the last words he uttered were, "God bless my wife,
And protect my young son from all wrong."
How our dear mother clung to us then in her grief,
As we promised her comforts to be.
Then oh taste not the wine for her sake, brother dear,
But turn from temptation with me.

(CHORUS)

3.
O touch not the wine cup, dear brother I pray,
Though it gleams in the crystal so cold.
Like a fire it will burn to your heart strings and blight
All your Good resolutions of old.
Dash it down, 'tis a thing to be dreaded and shunned,
Then go write to our mother a line,
How though tempted and tried for her sake, brother dear,
You manfully turned from the wine.

(CHORUS)