Classic Poem

Not that three armies thou didst overthrow,
Not that three cities oped their gates to thee,
I praise thee, Chief, not for this royalty
Decked with new crowns, that utterly laid low:
For nothing of all thou didst forsake to go
And tend thy vines amid the Etrurian Sea,
Not even that thou didst this — though history
Retread two thousand selfish years to show
Another Cinoinnatus! Rather for this,
The having lived such life, that even this deed
Of stress heroic natural seems as is
Calm night, when glorious day it doth succeed;
And we, forewarned by surest auguries,
The amazing act with no amazement read.