Andy7: I agree with you about both verses of Drink to Me Only. The first verse - well nigh perfect. The second? Not so much. The first seems to express genuine feeling; the second, genuine artifice - it's as if the conventions of the time required he come up with a Verse 2 (which may be the case; I don't know). And it all builds up to the 'rosy wreath' smelling 'not of itself, but thee' - which I've never found appealing. In fact, it rather reminds of an off-colour joke from my schooldays, about a woman relieving herself in a rose garden - but let's not go there.

How about Silver Dagger ('Don't sing love songs outside my window') - as sung by Joan Baez (I assume there are other versions)? I can't imagine changing a word of that one. Now that I think about it, it seems to me that there are a number of folk songs that have at least one 'perfect' version, lyrically.