Take the world! Zeus
exclaimed from his throne in the skies
To the children of man-take
the world I now give;
It shall ever remain as your heirloom
and prize,
So divide it as brothers,
and happily live.
Then all who had hands sought their
share to obtain,
The young and the aged made
haste to appear;
The husbandman seized on the fruits
of the plain,
The youth through the forest
pursued the fleet deer.
The merchant took all that his warehouse
could hold,
The abbot selected the last
years best wine,
The king barred the bridges,-the
highways controlled,
And said, Now remember,
the tithes shall be mine!
But when the division long-settled
had been,
The poet drew nigh from a
far distant land;
But alas! not a remnant was now
to be seen,
Each thing on the earth owned
a masters command.
Alas! shall then I, of thy
sons the most true,-
Shall I, mongst them
all, be forgotten alone?
Thus loudly he cried in his anguish,
and threw
Himself in despair before
Jupiters throne.
If thou in the region of
dreams didst delay,
Complain not of me,
the Immortal replied;
When the world was apportioned,
where then wert thou, pray?
I was, said
the poet, I was-by thy side!
Mine eye was then fixed on
thy features so bright,
Mine ear was entranced by
thy harmonys power;
Oh, pardon the spirit that, awed
by thy light,
All things of the earth could
forget in that hour!
What to do? Zeus exclaimed,-for
the world has been given;
The harvest, the market, the
chase, are not free;
But if thou with me wilt abide in
my heaven,
Whenever thou comest, twill
be open to thee!
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