Classic Poem

Publish your works — too long have you forborne —
Let not your polished work in darkness lie;
'Tis such as Cecrops' city should not scorn,
Nor Rome's ripe scholars pass in silence by.
Nay, doth it irk you that reward is nigh?
Why bar out fame who standeth at the gate?
Give birth to what must live, before you die,
For honour paid to ashes comes too late.