Damætas

In law an infant, and in years a boy
In mind a slave to every vicious joy
From every sense of shame and virtue wean’d
In lies an adept, in deceit a fiend
Versed in hypocrisy, while yet a child
Fickle as wind, of inclinations wild
Women his dupe, his heedless friend a tool
Old in the world, though scarcely broke from school
Damætas ran through all the maze of sin
And found the goal when others just begin
Even still conflicting passions shake his soul
And bid him drain the dregs of pleasure’s bowl
But, pall’d with vice, he breaks his former chain
And what was once his bliss appears his bane