Reflect, ere you spurn me, that youth at his sides

Wears wings; and once gone, all pursuit he derides:

Nor are men over keen to catch charms as they fly.

Think of this and be gentle, be loving as I:

When your years are maturer, we two shall be then

The pair in the Iliad over again.

But if you consign all my words to the wind

And say, 'Why annoy me? you're not to my mind,'

I—who lately in quest of the Gold Fruit had sped

For your sake, or of Cerberus guard of the dead—