The Anacreontic Society was a popular gentlemen's club in London, named in honor of Anacreon, a lyric poet of Greece who lived and wrote in the fifth century B.C. The society's patron saint was Anacreon, the "convivial bard of Greece." The society's membership, one observer noted, was dedicated to "wit, harmony, and the god of wine." The lyrics of the Anacreontic Song, the first four words of which are "To Anacreon in Heaven" were written by Ralph Tomlinson , who had been president of the society.