Lips That Touch Liquor Shall Never Touch Mine

DESCRIPTION: When the young man comes to the girl's door, she confesses that she had once hastened to answer his call. But now he shows the signs of liquor; she warns him that "Lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine." If he sobers up, she will reconsider
AUTHOR: George W. Young
EARLIEST DATE: 1878 (The Speaker's Garland #4, according to Gardner; supposedly writen c. 1870)
KEYWORDS: drink courting rejection
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 341, "Lips That Touch Liquor Shall Never Touch Mine" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 30, "The Lips That Touch Liquor Must Never Touch Mine" (2 texts, with the second perhaps a revised version of the Young original)
ADDITIONAL: Martin Gardner, editor, _Famous Poems from Bygone Days_, Dover, 1995, pp. 68-71, "Lips That Touch Liquor Shall Never Touch Mine"; "Lips That Touch LIquor Must Never Touch Mine" (2 texts, the first by Glazebrook, the second by Young)
ST R341 (Partial)
Roud #7812
NOTES [90 words]: According to Gardner, the first "Lips That Touch Liquor" was by George E. Young; it is the version that has been found in tradition. This inspired a temperance crusader by the name of Harriet E. Glazebrook to compose a sort of parody which begins "Alice Lee stood awaiting her lover one night." In it, Lee convinces her lover to give up drink. This version does not seem to have gone into tradition, but Gardner's notes seem to imply that it is more popular as a poem.
If there is a traditional tune for this poem, I haven't found it. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: R341

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