Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  1. Lacking my missile's defence I shall be wholly unarm'd.
  1. Why laugh such laughter, O most silly maid?
  2. My form Praxiteles nor Scopas hewed;
  3. To me no Phidian handwork finish gave;
  4. But me a bailiff hacked from shapeless log,
  5. And quoth my maker, 'Thou Priapus be!'
  6. Yet on me gazing forthright gigglest thou
  7. And holdest funny matter to deride
  8. The pillar perking from the groin of me.
  1. 'Ware of my catching! If caught, with rod I never will harm thee