Horace. <br /> <br />While I was your beloved one, <br />And while no other youth threw his fond arms around <br />Your white neck so easily, <br />Than the King of the world I was far happier. <br /> <br /> <br />Lydia.. <br /> <br />While you loved not another one, <br />While you did not prefer Chloë to Lydia, <br />I then thought myself happier <br />Than the mother of Rome, great Rhea Silvia. <br /> <br /> <br />Horace.. <br /> <br />Thracian Chloë now governs me, <br />She can merrily sing, playing the cithara; <br />I'd not scruple to die for her, <br />If the Implacable spared Chloë, the auburn haired. <br /> <br /> <br />Lydia. <br /> <br />I now love and am loved again, <br />By my Calaïs, son of the old Ornytus; <br />Twice I'd die for him willingly, <br />If the terrible fates spared but my Calaïs. <br /> <br /> <br />Horace. <br /> <br />What if love should return again, <br />And unite us by ties more indissoluble? <br />What if Chloë were cast away, <br />And the long-closed door open to Lydia? <br /> <br /> <br />Lydia. <br /> <br />My love's brighter than any star; <br />You, too, lighter than cork, tossed on the waves of the Hadriatic so terrible; <br />Still I'd live but with thee, and I could die with thee.<br /><br />James Clerk Maxwell<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ninth-ode-of-the-third-book-of-horace/
