Sightless Mammon, may’st thou be
Neither on the earth nor sea;
But be thou condemned to dwell
In the deepest depth of hell.
For, thou eyeless god, from thee
Springeth all our misery.
Here we have Plato—the philosopher—tilting it in verse.
To Aristophanes, the comedian.
The Graces, seeking long to find
Some temple, free from all decay,
Chose, Aristophanes, thy mind,
As that, which cannot pass away.
To Sappho.
Falsely they say the Muses are but nine—
A tenth is Lesbian Sappho—the divine.
In the following little morceau, the frog is considered as a priest to the Nymphs, whose particular jurisdiction was over streams and fountains.
To a brazen frog, set up by a traveler, as an offering to the Nymphs.
Thee—the Nymphs’ servant—lover of the shower—
Moist songster, dwelling in the shallow springs—
The traveler, forming with mimetic power,
A brazen offering, to the temple brings.
For to the wanderer thine amphibious note
Forth from thy dewy lodge, all timely, rung,
And led his fainting footsteps to the spot,
Where from the earth the gushing fountain sprung.
To a statue of Pan—the shepherd-god—carved with a pipe in his mouth.