Page:Acharnians and two other plays (1909).djvu/52

34

Strike the bold

Hearty rhymes,

New revived

Firm energetical

Music of Acharnæ;

Choleric, fiery, quick,

As the sparkle

From the charcoal,

Of the native evergreen

Knotted oak,

In the smoke

Shows his active fiery spleen.

Whilst beside

Stands the dish

Full of fish

Ready to be fried:

Every face, in the place,

Overjoyed, all employed,

Junketing apace.

Muse then, as a friend of all,

Hasten, and attend the call.

Give an ear

To your old,

Lusty, bold

Townsmen here.

Epirrema. We, the veterans of the city, briefly must expostulate

At the hard ungrateful usage which we meet with from the state,

Suffering men of years and service at your bar to stand indicted,

Bullied by your beardless speakers, worried and perplexed and frighted;

Aided only by their staff, the staff on which their steps are stayed;

Old, and impotent, and empty; deaf, decrepit, and decayed.

There they stand, and pore, and drivel, with a misty purblind gleam,

Scarce discerning the tribunal, in a kind of waking dream.

Then the stripling, their accuser, fresh from training, bold and quick,