The Acid Sisters; And Other Poems (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SUBJECTS FROM ANCIENT HISTORY. THE ARTIFICE OF KING AMAS1S. A story from Herodotus. To Egypt's king, Cambyses penned A note: " My hopes excite me, I love your daughter, kindly send The girl, and you'll delight me." Amasis, caring not to wed, Just then, his only daughter, Bedecked another girl instead With stones of finest water; And into Persia as his own Despatched her. She was feted, And king Cambyses on his throne Himself congratulated. He praised her lips, her faultless nose, Her ankles?which between us, Were not a whit less neat than those Ascribed by bards to Venus. At last the secret outward got, And on mature reflection He found her eyes and lips were not? Her nose was not?perfection. And in his wrath an armed horde He raised. Its forces serried He led, to try the power of sword, Nor knew that, dead and buried, His foe had checked him. So the gods Decreed. Exasperated, The wretched corpse he beat with rods And what was left cremated. And so if any swain apply Politely for your daughter Say " yes " or " no," but do not try To cheat an honest courier. 26 THE ABSURD CONDUCT OF HIPPOCLIDES. To palm on simple gentlemen The wrong girl, a disgrace is, And history might repeat again The sentence of Amasis. 2$rd. September, 1896. THE ABSURD CONDUCT OF HIPPOCLIDES. A story from Herodotus. Of all the tales of courting The funniest to us Appears the one embedded In old Herodotus. King Clisthenes,1 a daughter Accomplished had, and sweet, And those who hoped to court her Were in his hall to meet. Came epicures and sages To pay their warm addresses, And princes; in the market Not always are princesses. Advantage o'er the others Was soon attained by one, ...