9.
—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.25
9.
Nay, rather—second thoughts are best—here stay!
Come on and do your worst, and cry what shame it is
Fellows like me cumber the earth a day!
Take counsel now, be warlike as you will,
Brush up your pandoors’ whiskers, your hussars
Clap on their helmets, spit your leaden pill,
Bare your sabres and hack your sanguine scars,
Your venoms ply, your wily slanders wake,
Your stabbing points of lies polish the more!
Ye can not get you where I live, nor make
My ruling faculty worse than before.
Forsooth ye make a very pretty foe,
That can not hurt me and soon prove it so.
IMAGE: Edouard Detaille, Vive l'Empereur! (1891)
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