QUOTH Cyneas, counselor and friend To royal Pyrrhus, "To what end, Tell me, O mightiest of kings, Are all these ships and warlike things?" "To conquer Rome! -- a pretty prize, And worth the cost," the King replies; "She'll prove, I think, a valiant foe; So, if you please, to Rome we go." "Well, -- Rome reduced, my royal friend, What conquest next do you intend?" "The rest of Italy will do To keep our arms from rusting." "True. And then, of course there's something more?" "Well, -- Sicily, a neighboring shore, Is worth the having." "Very well, -- What next?" "That is n't hard to tell; Of such a navy what's the use Unless we sail to Syracuse?" "'T is well, -- and, having at command All these, why, then you'll stay your hand?" "No. Syracuse obtained, we'll make A trip to Carthage; then we'll take" -- "Your scheme is vast, I must confess. Thus you advance till you possess Arabia, Africa, and what May lie beyond, -- till you have got The Indian realm; nor resting there, Extend your broad dominion where The hardy Scythian dwells. And then?" "Why, then we'll hasten back again, And take our ease, and sweetly spend Our lives in pleasure to the end." So quoth the King. "Ah!" Cyneas said, And gravely shook his reverend head, "Why go so far and pay so dear For pleasures, Sire, that now and here We may possess? How much more wise To take the good that near us lies, To seize the passing joy, unvext With anxious care about the next!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON A MAGAZINE SONNET by RUSSELL HILLARD LOINES A DROP OF DEW by ANDREW MARVELL AN HYMN TO THE EVENING by PHILLIS WHEATLEY ELEGIAC STANZAS by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH LOVE: AN ELEGY by MARK AKENSIDE THE LAY OF THE OLD WOMAN CLOTHED IN GREY; A LEGEND OF DOVER by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM |