Venus, good-bye! Now, off I go! Good-bye, sweet ladies all!
I am all valor, and delight to hear the trumpets call.
Large is my brag! But while with pride my project I recite,
I see her bolted door,--and then my boasting fails me quite.
Never to visit her again, with many an oath I swore;
But while I vowed, my feet had run unguided to her door.
Come now, ye lovers all! who serve in Cupid's hard campaign,
Let us together to the wars, and thus our peace regain!
This age of iron frowns on love and smiles on golden gain,--
On spoils of war which must be won by agony and pain.
For spoils alone our swords are keen, and deadly spears are hurled
While carnage, wrath, and swifter death fly broadcast through the world.
For spoils, with double risk of death the threatening seas we sail,
And climb the steel-beaked ship-of-war, so mighty and so frail!
The spoilers proud to boundless lands their bloody titles read,
And see innumerable flocks o'er endless acres feed
Fine foreign marbles they will bring; and all the city stare,
While one tall column for a house a thousand oxen bear.
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