t my voice to sail in every cause?
Thy scope is mortal; mine, eternal fame.
That all the world may[220] ever chant my name.
Homer shall live while Tenedos stands and Ide,
Or to[221] the sea swift Simois shall[222] slide. 10
Ascraeus lives while grapes with new wine swell,
Or men with crooked sickles corn down fell.
The[223] world shall of Callimachus ever speak;
His art excelled, although his wit was weak.
For ever lasts high Sophocles' proud vein,
With sun and moon Aratus shall remain.
While bondmen cheat, fathers [be] hard,[224] bawds whorish,
And strumpets flatter, shall Menander flourish.
Rude Ennius, and Plautus[225] full of wit,
Are both in Fame's eternal legend writ. 20
What age of Varro's name shall not be told,
And Jason's Argo,[226] and the fleece of gold?
Lofty Lucretius shall live that hour,
That nature shall dissolve this earthly bower.
AEneas' war and Tityrus shall be read,
While Rome of all the conquered[227] world is head.
Till Cupid's bow, and fiery shafts be broken,
Thy verses, sweet Tibullus, shall be spoken.
And Gallus shall be known from East to West,
So shall Lycoris whom he loved best. 30
Therefore when flint and iron wear away,
Verse is immortal and shall ne'er decay.
To[228] verse let kings give place and kingly shows,
And banks o'er which gold-bearing Tagus flows.
Let base-conceited wits admire vild things;
Fair Phoebus lead me to the Muses' springs.
About my head be quivering myrtle wound,
And in sad lovers' heads let me be found.
The living, not the dead, can envy bite,
For after death all men receive their right. 40
Then though death racks[229] my bones in funeral fire,
I'll live, and as he pulls me down mount higher.

The same, by B. I.[230]

Envy, why twitt'st thou me, my time's spent ill?
And call'st my verse fruits of an idle quill?
Or that (unlike the line from whence I sprung)
War's dusty honours I pursue not young?
Or that I study not the tedious laws;
And prostitute my voice in every cause?
Thy scope is mortal; mine eternal fame,
Which through the world shall ever chant my name.
Homer will live, whilst Tenedos stands, and Ide,
Or to the sea, fleet Symois doth slide: 10