Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, EPIGRAM: 5, 20. AD MARTIALEM, by MARCUS VALERIUS MARTIALIS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

EPIGRAM: 5, 20. AD MARTIALEM, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: God knows, my martial, if we two could be
Last Line: "another gone: o when will ye arise?"
Alternate Author Name(s): Martial
Subject(s): Freedom; Life; Liberty


GOD knows, my Martial, if we two could be
To enjoy our days set wholly free;
To the true life together bend our mind,
And take a furlough from the falser kind,
No rich saloon, nor palace of the great
Nor suit at law should trouble our estate;
On no vainglorious statues should we look.
But of a walk, a talk, a little book,
Baths, wells, and meads and the verandah shade,
Let all our travels and our toils be made.
Now neither lives unto himself, alas!
And the good suns we see, that flash and pass
And perish; and the bell that knells them cries,
"Another gone: O when will ye arise?"





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