Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ELEGY: 3.25. REVENGE TO COME, by SEXTUS PROPERTIUS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ELEGY: 3.25. REVENGE TO COME, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I was a joke at dinners; aye, any would-be wit
Last Line: Your beauty waits this ending. Woman, believe—and fear!
Subject(s): Aging; Revenge


I WAS a joke at dinners; aye, any would-be wit
Might use me for a target, and I must stomach it.
Five years I could be loyal; but now, you'll often mourn,
Biting your nails for anguish, the faith at last outworn,
Nay, weeping will not touch me—I know that trick of old;
You always weep from ambush, I cannot be cajoled.
I shall depart in tears, but my wrongs will check their flow;
Ours was a team well sorted—you could not leave it so.
So now, my mistress' threshold, where oft my tear-drops fell,
And thou, the door I haunted, I bid ye both farewell.
May age afflict you, Cynthia, with ill-dissembled years,
And may you see the wrinkles your fading beauty fears.
And when your glass flings at you the ruin pictured there,
Go curse them, every wrinkle, and every whitening hair.
Be you in turn excluded, and suffer proud disdain,
And all you did to others be done to you again.
So fate shall soon avenge me—my page bids you give ear—
Your beauty waits this ending. Woman, believe—and fear!





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