POEMS OF GREECE
"You with a—yes, with a flute, and a rose, or, maybe, an apple;
I, with new Amyclæan shoes, and a robe in the fashion.
"Graceful Bombýcê, your feet are pretty as dice that twinkle;
Soft is your voice; but your manner,—I have no words to express it!"
MILO.
Look you, the lad has been sly, composing us elegant ditties:
See how well he has measured the form of his even rhythm!
O this beard of mine, which I seem to have grown to no purpose!
But, to go on, now hear these words of the sage Lytiersês:
(Sings.)
"O Dêmêter, abounding in fruit and ears of the harvest,
Well may this field be worked and yield a crop beyond measure!
"Hard, bind hard, ye binders, the sheaves, lest ever a passer
Say, 'These men are poor sticks, and their pay is cash out of pocket.'
"Toward the north-wind let your swath of grain in the cutting
Look, or else to the west, for thus the ear will grow fuller.
"Threshers, threshing the corn, should shun the slumbers of noonday;
That is the very hour when the chaff flies off from the wheat-stalk.
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