To An Aged Cut-Up I

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Horace: Book III, Ode 15

"Uxor pauperis Ibyci,
  Tandem nequitiæ fige modum tuæ-"

  IN CHLORIN


Dear Mrs. Ibycus, accept a little sound advice,
 Your manners and your speech are overbold;
To chase around the sporty way you do is far from nice;
 Believe me, darling, you are growing old.

Now Pholoë may fool around (she dances like a doe!)
 A débutante has got to think of men;
But you were twenty-seven over thirty years ago-
 You ought to be asleep at half-past ten.

O Chloris, cut the ragging and the roses and the rum-
 Delete the drink, or better, chop the booze!
Go buy a skein of yarn and make the knitting needles hum,
 And imitate the art of Sister Suse.

© Franklin Pierce Adams