XXV.

Smooth Thallus, inly softer you than any furry rabbit,

Or glossy goose's oily plumes, or velvet earlap yielding,

Or feeble age's heavy thighs, or flimsy filthy cobweb;

And Thallus, hungry rascal you, as hurricane rapacious,

When winks occasion on the stroke, the gulls agape declaring:

Return the mantle home to me, you watch'd your hour to pilfer,

The fleecy napkin and the rings from Thynia quaintly graven,

Whatever you parade as yours, vain fool, a sham reversion:

Unglue the nails adroit to steal, unclench the spoil, deliver,

Lest yet that haunch voluptuous, those tender hands caressant,

Should take an ugly print severe, the scourge's heavy branding;

And strange to bruises you should heave, as heaves in open Ocean,

Some little hoy surprised adrift, when wails the windy water.