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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
AETIA: PROLOGUE. THE BATTLE OF THE BOOKS, by CALLIMACHUS Poet's Biography
First Line: Go learn, o green-eyed monster's fatal brood
Last Line: Let me go light, and flit my dainty way.
Alternate Author Name(s): Kallimachos
Subject(s): Books; Reading
First Line: Go learn, o green-eyed monster's fatal brood
Last Line: Let me go light, and flit my dainty way.
Alternate Author Name(s): Kallimachos
Subject(s): Books; Reading
GO learn, O green-eyed monster's fatal brood,
By Art, not parasangs, to judge what's good.
Look not to me for lofty sounding song;
The thunder-claps to father Zeus belong.
When first a tablet on my knees reclined,
Apollo, lord of Lycia, spoke his mind:
'Give me, good bard, for sacrificial fare
A victim fat: but let your Muse be spare.
And listen, -- when your chariot skims the road,
Avoid the route that takes a wagon's load;
Leave open ways and trodden tracks alone,
And go the gate that's narrow, but your own.'
I tuned my quill, nor let the warning pass, --
A sweet cicala, not a raucous ass.
Long ears and all, another bard shall bray;
Let me go light, and flit my dainty way.
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