Priapeia

Priaepia

by divers poets in English verse and prose. Translated by Sir Richard Burton and Leonard C. Smithers

  1. And This, however gross, withouten fraud
  2. Stiffer than lyre-string or than twisted rope
  3. I'll thrust and bury to thy seventh rib.
  1. Oft in my speech one letter is lost; for Predicate always
  2. Pedicate I pronounce. Reason--a trip of the tongue!
  1. Matrons avoid this site, for your chaste breed
  2. 'Twere vile these verses impudique to read.
  3. They still come on and not a doit they heed!
  4. O'ermuch these matrons know and they regard
  5. With willing glances this my vasty yard.
  1. 'Why be my parts obscene displayed without cover?' thou askest:
  2. Ask I wherefore no God careth his sign to conceal?
  3. Wieldeth the Lord of the World his thunderbolt ever unhidden,
  4. Nor is trident a-sheath given to the Watery God:
  5. Mars never veileth that blade whose might is his prevalent power,
  6. Nor in her tepid lap Pallas concealeth the spear:
  7. Say me, is Phoebus ashamed his gold-tipt arrows to carry?
  8. Or is her quiver wont Dian in secret to bear?
  9. Say, doth Alcides hide his war-club doughtily knotted?
  10. Or hath the God with the wings rod hidden under his robe?