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Songs? Yes, I have materials to show

How bad his are, and always all alike.

What in the world shall we look for next?

Aeschylus' music! I feel perplexed

How he can want it mended.

I have always held that never a man

Had written or sung since the world began

Melodies half so splendid!

(Can he really find a mistake

In the master of inspiration?

I feel some consternation

For our Bacchic prince's sake!)

Wonderful songs they are! You'll see directly;

I'll run them all together into one.

I'll take some pebbles, then, and count for you.

"O Phthian Achilles, canst hark to the battle's man-slaying shock,

Yea, shock, and not to succour come?

Lo, we of the Mere give worship to Hermes, the fount of our stock,

Yea, shock, and not to succour come!"

Two shocks to you, Aeschylus, there!