umble, in haste to see the day-light,
Hear your prattle again, again be with you.

3.

Then, when weary with all the worry, numb'd, dead,
Sank my body, upon the bed reposing, 15
This, O humorous heart, did I, a poem
Write, my tedious anguish all revealing.

O beware then of hardihood; a lover's
Plea for charity, dear my friend, reject not:
What if Nemesis haply claim repayment? 20
She is tyrannous. O beware offending.

LI.

He to me like unto the Gods appeareth,
He, if I dare speak it, ascends above them,
Face to face who toward thee attently sitting
Gazes or hears thee

Lovely in sweet laughter; alas within me 5
Every lost sense falleth away for anguish;
When as I look'd on thee, upon my lips no
Whisper abideth,
Straight my tongue froze, Lesbia; soon a subtle
Fire thro' each limb streameth adown; with inward 10
Sound the full ears tinkle, on either eye night's
Canopy darkens.
Ease alone, Catullus, alone afflicts thee;
Ease alone breeds error of heady riot;
Ease hath entomb'd princes of old renown and 15
Cities of honour.

LII.

Enough, Catullus! how can you delay to die?
If in the curule chair a hump sits, Nonius;
A would-be consul lies in hope, Vatinius;
Enough, Catullus! how can you delay to die?

LIII.

How I laughed at a wag amid the circle!
He, when Calvus in high denunciation
Of Vatinius had declaim'd divinely,
Hands uplifted as in supreme amazement,
Cried 'God bless us! a wordy cockalorum!' 5

LIV.

Otho's head is a very dwarf; a rustic's
Shanks has Herius, only semi-cleanly;
Libo's airs to a fume of art refine them.
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . 5
_Yet thou flee'st not above my keen iambics_.
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
[_So may destiny doom me quite to silence_]
As I care not if every line offend thee 10
And Sufficius, age in youth's revival.
. . . . . . . .
Thou shalt kindle at innocent iamb