A ROMAN ROUND-ROBIN by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON

('HIS FRIENDS' TO QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS)

'Hoec decies repetita [non] placebit.' -- ARS POETICA.

FLACCUS, you write us charming songs:
No bard we know possesses
In such perfection what belongs
To brief and bright addresses;

No man can say that Life is short
With mien so little fretful;
No man to Virtue's paths exhort
In phrases less regretful;

Or touch, with more serene distress,
On Fortune's ways erratic;
And then delightfully digress
From Alp to Adriatic:

All this is well, no doubt, and tends
Barbarian minds to soften;
But, HORACE -- we, we are your friends --
Why tell us this so often?

Why feign to spread a cheerful feast,
And then thrust in our faces
These barren scraps (to say the least)
Of Stoic common-places?

Recount, and welcome, your pursuits:
Sing Lyde's lyre and hair;
Sing drums and Berecynthian flutes;
Sing parsley-wreaths; but spare, --

O, spare to sing, what none deny,
That things we love decay;
That Time and Gold have wings to fly; --
That all must Fate obey!

Or bid us dine -- on this day week --
And pour us, if you can,
As soft and sleek as girlish cheek,
Your inmost Caecuban; --

Of that we fear not overplus;
But your didactic 'tap' --
Forgive us! -- grows monotonous;
Nunc vale! Verbum sap.

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