Classic Poem

Come , Julius, share a pleasant meal with me,
If you should have no better occupation,
(We'll bathe together—keep the eighth hour free,
You know the bath adjoins my habitation),
Sliced leeks and wholesome lettuce there will be,
And tunny fry in happy combination
With rue and sauce of egg—I like it well
When rather larger than a mackerel.

Eggs also, poached upon a slack-wood fire,
Picenian olives touched by frost but lightly,
These first. Shall I tell more?—in my desire
To bring you, pardon my romancing slightly;
My fish, birds, game, a gourmet might inspire,
A Stella's table does not see them nightly;
No verse I'll read but you shall give me all
Your epic and Virgilian pastoral.