To Quintus Hirpinus

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To Scythian and Cantabrian plots,
  Pay them no heed, O Quintius!
  So long as we
  From care are free,
  Vexations cannot cinch us.

Unwrinkled youth and grace, forsooth,
  Speed hand in hand together;
  The songs we sing
  In time of spring
  Are hushed in wintry weather.

Why, even flow'rs change with the hours,
  And the moon has divers phases;
  And shall the mind
  Be racked to find
  A clew to Fortune's mazes?

Nay; 'neath this tree let you and me
  Woo Bacchus to caress us;
  We're old, 't is true,
  But still we two
  Are thoroughbreds, God bless us!

While the wine gets cool in yonder pool,
  Let's spruce up nice and tidy;
  Who knows, old boy,
  But we may decoy
  The fair but furtive Lyde?

She can execute on her ivory lute
  Sonatas full of passion,
  And she bangs her hair
  (Which is passing fair)
  In the good old Spartan fashion.

© Eugene Field