Classic Poem

53. To Fidentinus -

You stole my book — one page and one alone
Is yours, indelibly 'tis signed and sealed
With vilest imperfections all your own:
Thus of the rest your theft doth stand revealed.
So when the courtly gallants of the Town
Are elbowed by a bumpkin smeared and patched,
Their cloaks are sullied by the greasy clown;
Is vulgar clay with clearest crystal-matched?
When to swan-haunted streams a crow is nigh
The carrion bird hath yet a fouler taint,
When thrills the grove to nightingales, the pie
Mars with her evil shriek the Attic plaint.
No surer proof, no advocate, I need
Your page stands forth to prove your felon deed.EnglishMartial