Make for the city !) Over men's pity ; Bent on escaping : “ What 's in the scroll,” quoth he, “thou keepest furled ? “ Show me their shaping, “ Theirs who most studied man, the bard and sage, “ Give !"_So, he gowned him, Learned, we found him. Accents uncertain : “ Up with the curtain !” This man said rather, “ Actual life comes next? “ Patience a moment ! “ Grant I have mastered learning's crabbed text, “ Still there 's the comment. “ Let me know all ! Prate not of most or least, “ Painful or easy! Even to the crumbs I'd fain eat up the feast, “Ay, nor feel queasy." When he had learned it, Sooner, he spurned it. Fancy the fabric Ere mortar dab brick ! (Here's the town-gate reached ; th=re's the market-place Gaping before us.) (Hearten our chorus !) That before living he 'd learn how to live No end to learning : Use for our earning. • Live now or never !” He said, “What's time? Leave Now for dogs and apes ! “ Man has Forever.” Calculus racked him : Tussis attacked him. (Caution redoubled ! Not a whit troubled, Fierce as a dragon Sucked at the flagon. Heedless of far gain, Bad is our bargain ! (He loves the burthen)- Perfect the earthen ? Just what it all meant ? Paid by instalment. Found, or earth's failure : “ Wilt thou trust death or not?" He answered “Yes ! “ Hence with life's pale lure !" That low man seeks a little thing to do, Sees it and does it : Dies ere he knows it. His hundred 's soon hit : Misses an unit. Let the world mind him ! Seeking shall find him. Ground he at grammar; While he could stammer Properly based Oun- Dead from the waist down. Hail to your purlieus, Swallows and curlews! Live, for they can, there : Bury this man there? Lightnings are loosened, Peace let the dew send ! Loftily lying, Living and dying CLEON. " As certain also of your own poets have said" — CLEON the poet, (from the sprinkled isles, Lily on lily, that o'erlace the sea, And laugh their pride when the light wave lisps “Greece")— To Protus in his Tyranny : much health ! They give thy letter to me, even now : I read and seem as if I heard thee speak. The master of thy galley still unlades Gift after gift ; they block my court at last And pile themselves along its portico Royal with sunset, like a thought of thee; And one white she-slave, from the group dispersed Of black and white slaves, (like the chequer-work Pavement, at once my nation's work and gift, Now covered with this settle-down of doves) One lyric woman, in her crocus vest Woven of sea-wools, with her two white hands Commends to me the strainer and the cup Thy lip hath bettered ere it blesses mine. Well-counselled, king, in thy munificence ! Did'st ne'er engage in work for mere work's sake : Thy great words and describe thy royal face- Thy letter's first requirement meets me here. It is as thou hast heard : in one short life I, Cleon, have effected all those things Thou wonderingly dost enumerate. That epos on thy hundred plates of gold Is mine, and also mine the little chant So sure to rise from every fishing bark When, lights at prow, the seamen haul their net. The image of the sun-god on the phare, Men turn from the sun's self to see, is mine; The Pæcile, o'er-storied its whole length, As thou didst hear, with painting, is mine too. I know the true proportions of a man And woman also, not observed before ; And I have written three books on the soul, Proving absurd all written hitherto, And putting us to ignorance again. For music,—why, I have combined the moods, Inventing one. In brief, all arts are mine; Thus much the people know and recognise, Throughout our seventeen islands. Marvel not ! We of these latter days, with greater mind Than our forerunners, since more composite, |