I never knew where this phrase came from, “days of wine and roses.” Of course, there’s a famous movie with that title and a well known Frank Sinatra song. It turns out that the phrase comes from a poem written by Victorian poet Ernest Dowson who was born on this date in 1867. Here’s the poem, rather haunting I think:

Vitae Summa Brevis Spem nos Vetet Incohare Longam

They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream.