Dukes, who petition just to kiss your ring—

With much beside you know or may conceive?

Suppose we die to-night: well, here am I,

Such were my gains, life bore this fruit to me,

While writing all the same my articles

On music, poetry, the fictile vase

Found at Albano, chess, Anacreon's Greek.

But you—the highest honor in your life,

The thing you'll crown yourself with, all your days,

Is—dining here and drinking this last glass