PAY me my price, potters! and I will sing. Attend, O Pallas! and with lifted arm Protect their oven; let the cups and all The sacred vessels blacken well, and, baked With good success, yield them both fair renown And profit, whether in the market sold Or streets, and let no strife ensue between us. But oh, ye potters! if with shameless front Ye falsify your promise, then I leave No mischief uninvoked to avenge the wrong. Come Syntrips, Smaragus, Sabactes, come, And Asbetus; nor let your direst dread, Omodamus, delay! Fire seize your house! May neither house nor vestibule escape! May ye lament to see confusion mar And mingle the whole labour of your hands, And may a sound fill all your oven, such As of a horse grinding his provender, While all your pots and flagons bounce within. Come hither also, daughter of the sun, Circe the sorceress, and with thy drugs Poison themselves, and all that they have made! Come also, Chiron, with thy numerous troop Of Centaurs, as well those who died beneath The club of Hercules, as who escaped, And stamp their crockery to dust; down fall Their chimney; let them see it with their eyes, And howl to see the ruin of their art, While I rejoice; and if a potter stoop To peep into his furnace, may the fire Flash in his face and scorch it, that all men Observe, thenceforth, equity and good faith | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DESCRIPTION OF SPRING by HENRY HOWARD THE GODS OF THE COPYBOOK HEADINGS by RUDYARD KIPLING THE FOURTH OF JULY by JOHN PIERPONT TO GERMANY by CHARLES HAMILTON SORLEY GREAT BELL ROLAND; SUGGESTED BY PRESIDENT'S CALL VOLUNTEERS by THEODORE TILTON |