Selections from the Epigrams of M. Valerius Martialis Translated or Imitated in English Verse: By W. J. Courthope |
 | IX. |
Choice of a Profession
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 | Selections from the Epigrams of M. Valerius Martialis |  |
97
Choice of a Profession
You ask, De Vere, to what employYou best may bind your growing boy.
Avoid—unless his life you'd mar—
The School, the Pulpit, and the Bar!
Let Blackstone not the pupil claim!
To Cairns and Palmer leave their fame!
And if on verse he'd ink be spilling,
Cut off the poet with a shilling!
Does your young Hopeful wish to start
Upon the golden road of Art,
Teach him in pantomimes to dance,
Or charm the Hall like the “Great Vance”!
Or make him—should he prove no seer—
A Pawnbroker or Auctioneer!
| Selections from the Epigrams of M. Valerius Martialis | |