Yet they had only given me to dress
Some paltry river-fish that feed on mud.
If I had had a sea-char, or a turbot
From Athens—Zeus the Saver!—or a boar-fish
From Argos, or from darling Sicyon
That fish which Neptune carries up to Heaven
To feast the Immortals with—the conger-eel;
Then all who ate it would have turn'd to gods.
I have discover'd the elixir vitæ;
Those who are dead already, when they've smelt