Strike the bold
Hearty rhymes,
New revived
Firm energetical
Music of Acharnæ;
Choleric, fiery, quick,
As the sparkle 890
From the charcoal,
Of the native evergreen
Knotted oak,
In the smoke
Shows his active fiery spleen.
Whilst beside
Stands the dish
Full of fish
Ready to be fried:
Every face, in the place, 900
Overjoyed, all employed,
Junketing apace.
Muse then, as a friend of all,
Hasten, and attend the call.
Give an ear
To your old,
Lusty, bold
Townsmen here.
Epirrema. We, the veterans of the city, briefly must expostulate
At the hard ungrateful usage which we meet with from the state, 910
Suffering men of years and service at your bar to stand indicted,
Bullied by your beardless speakers, worried and perplexed and frighted;
Aided only by their staff, the staff on which their steps are stayed;
Old, and impotent, and empty; deaf, decrepit, and decayed.
There they stand, and pore, and drivel, with a misty purblind gleam,
Scarce discerning the tribunal, in a kind of waking dream.
