Saxe
PERDIDI DIEM
The Emperor Titus, at the close of a day in which he had neither
gained any knowledge nor conferred benefit, was accustomed to
exclaim, "Perdidi diem," "I have lost a day."
Why art thou sad, thou of the sceptred hand?
The rob'd in purple, and the high in state?
Rome pours her myriads forth, a vassal band,
And foreign powers are crouching at thy gate;
Yet dost thou deeply sigh, as if oppressed by fate.
"_Perdidi diem!_"--Pour the empire's treasure,
Uncounted gold, and gems of rainbow dye;
Unlock the fountains of a monarch's pleasure
To lure the lost one back. I heard a sigh--
One hour of parted time, a world is poor to buy.
"_Perdidi diem!_"--'Tis a mournful story,
Thus in the ear of pensive eve to tell,
Of morning's firm resolves, the vanish'd glory,
Hope's honey left within the withering bell
And plants of mercy dead, that might have bloomed so well.
Hail, self-communing Emperor, nobly wise!
There are, who thoughtless haste to life's last goal.
There are, who time's long squandered wealth despise.
_Perdidi vitam_ marks their finished scroll,
When Death's dark angel comes to claim the startled soul.
--Mrs. Sigourney
JUPITER AND HIS CHILDREN
A Classic Fable
Once, on sublime Olympus, when
Great Jove, the sire of gods and men,
Was looking down on this our Earth,
And marking the increasing dearth
Of pious deeds and noble lives,
While vice abounds and meanness thrives,--
He straight determined to efface
At one fell swoop the thankless race
Of human kind.
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