Classic Poem

What motive, Sextus, brings you up to town?
Some idle hope of fortune or renown? Sextus:
I'll be a pleader: all our courts shall know
I am more eloquent than Cicero. Martial:
So Civis thought and Atestinus too,
— You know them — but their rent is overdue. Sextus:
If that should fail, my verses might atone;
They're worthy Virgil's pen, as you will own. Martial:
The man is mad; our Virgils you may meet
And threadbare Ovids, cowering in the street. Sextus:
I'll find a patron — others have before — Martial:
And all have starved excepting three or four. Sextus:
I mean to live here — tell me how I can. Martial:
By luck alone, if you're an honest man.