A Tardy Apology

Eugene Field 1850 (St. Louis) – 1895 (Chicago)



You ask me, friend,
Why I don't send
The long since due-and-paid-for numbers;
Why, songless, I
As drunken lie
Abandoned to Lethean slumbers.

Long time ago
(As well you know)
I started in upon that carmen;
My work was vain,--
But why complain?
When gods forbid, how helpless are men!

Some ages back,
The sage Anack
Courted a frisky Samian body,
Singing her praise
In metered phrase
As flowing as his bowls of toddy.

Till I was hoarse
Might I discourse
Upon the cruelties of Venus;
'T were waste of time
As well of rhyme,
For you've been there yourself, Maecenas!

Perfect your bliss
If some fair miss
Love you yourself and _not_ your minae;
I, fortune's sport,
All vainly court
The beauteous, polyandrous Phryne!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
83

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABCCB DDEFFX XDXGGA HHXIIB JJEKKE
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 689
Words 128
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6, 6

Eugene Field

Eugene Field, Sr. was an American writer, best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays. more…

All Eugene Field poems | Eugene Field Books

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