Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  1. Chose me for being a god; so a god to the thieves and the birdies
  2. Direst of dreads I became, my right the robbers restraining,
  3. Eke with a ruddy pole from parts obscenely projected,
  4. While th' importunate fowls affrights a reed on my head-poll
  5. Planted, and hinders their flock from 'lighting in newly made gardens.
  6. Erst to be hither borne from narrow cellules ejected
  7. Corpses by fellow-slaves were coffined in biers of the vilest.
  8. This was the common yard to ensepulchre wretched plebeians,