You ask me, friend, <br />Why I don't send <br />The long since due-and-paid-for numbers; <br />Why, songless, I <br />As drunken lie <br />Abandoned to Lethean slumbers. <br /> <br />Long time ago <br />(As well you know) <br />I started in upon that carmen; <br />My work was vain,-- <br />But why complain? <br />When gods forbid, how helpless are men! <br /> <br />Some ages back, <br />The sage Anack <br />Courted a frisky Samian body, <br />Singing her praise <br />In metered phrase <br />As flowing as his bowls of toddy. <br /> <br />Till I was hoarse <br />Might I discourse <br />Upon the cruelties of Venus; <br />'T were waste of time <br />As well of rhyme, <br />For you've been there yourself, Maecenas! <br /> <br />Perfect your bliss <br />If some fair miss <br />Love you yourself and _not_ your minae; <br />I, fortune's sport, <br />All vainly court <br />The beauteous, polyandrous Phryne!<br /><br />Eugene Field<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-tardy-apology/
