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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON HIMSELF by MELEAGER

First Line: MY BIRTHPLACE WAS OF SYRIA
Last Line: SUCH GARRULOUS AGE MAYEST THOU ENJOY.
Subject(s): SELF;
MY birthplace was of Syria,
The Attic haunt of Gadara;
My foster-nurse was island Tyre,
And Eucrates I own for sire.
By Muses' help the first to vie
With Menippean Graces, I
Am Meleager. Yes, and what
If Syrian? Stranger, marvel not.
Own we not all one common earth?
One chaos brought us all to birth.
Now full of years these lines I trace,
Here with my burial face to face:
In House of Eld who sojourneth
Hath for his next-door neighbour Death.
Bid an old garrulous man 'good-bye';
Such garrulous age mayest thou enjoy.



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