Martial, Lib. I. Epig. I

On My Thirty-Third Birthday. January 22, 1821.

Through Life's dull road, so dim and dirty,
I have dragged to three-and-thirty.
What have these years left to me?
Nothing—except thirty-three.

[First published, Letters and Journals, 1830, ii. 414.]

"Hic est, quem legis, ille, quem requiris,
Toto notus in orbe Martialis," etc.

He, unto whom thou art so partial,
Oh, reader! is the well-known Martial,
The Epigrammatist: while living,
Give him the fame thou would'st be giving;
So shall he hear, and feel, and know it—
Post-obits rarely reach a poet.

[N.D. ? 1821.]
[First published, Lord Byron's Works, 1833, xvii. 245]