Читать книгу Something Else Again - Franklin P. Adams - Страница 8

"Est mihi nonum superantis annum——"

Phyllis, I've a jar of wine,

(Alban, BC 49),

Parsley wreaths, and, for your tresses,

Ivy that your beauty blesses.

Shines my house with silverware;

Frondage decks the altar stair—

Sacred vervain, a device

For a lambkin's sacrifice.

Up and down the household stairs

What a festival prepares!

Everybody's superintending—

See the sooty smoke ascending!

What, you ask me, is the date

Of the day we celebrate?

13th April, month of Venus—

Birthday of my boss, Mæcenas.

Let me, Phyllis, say a word

Touching Telephus, a bird

Ranking far too high above you;

(And the loafer doesn't love you).

Lessons, Phyllie, may be learned

From Phaëton—how he was burned!

And recall Bellerophon was

One equestrian who thrown was.

Phyllis, of my loves the last,

My philandering days are past.

Sing you, in your clear contralto,

Songs I write for the rialto.