Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PROLOGUE OF LABERIUS, by ANONYMOUS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PROLOGUE OF LABERIUS, by                    
First Line: Whither hath destiny (whose current strong)
Last Line: Save the poor legend of a tomb -- my name
Subject(s): "caesar, Julius (100-44 B.c.);fate;roman Empire;" Destiny


WHITHER hath Destiny (whose current strong
Hath spared how few, how many swept along)
Flung me, her victim, in my latter days,
Whom not ambition, nor the meed of praise,
Nor fear, nor power, nor frowns, nor aught beside,
Could move, when youthful, from my place of pride?
Lo! in mine age how easily I fall!
One honeyed speech from Caesar's tongue was all.
For how might I refuse his sovereign will,
Whose every wish the Gods themselves fulfil?

Twice thirty years passed by without a scorn --
A Roman knight I left my home this morn,
And thither I return -- as what? a Mime!
O, I have lived one day beyond my time --
Fortune, unequal both in good and ill,
If thou hadst power, by this unhappy skill,
To tear the wreath of honour from my brow,
Why was I not far earlier taught to bow,
When with such aid as youth and strength afford,
I might have won the crowd, and pleased their lord?
Now, why thus humbled? Where's the form and face,
The mien majestic, and the gallant grace --
The fire of soul, the harmony of tone,
That can adorn the mimic scene alone?
As the slow ivy kills the stately tree,
So age in its embrace is stifling me;
And nothing's left of all my former fame
Save the poor legend of a tomb -- my name.





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