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Home  »  library  »  poem  »  Live without Dining

C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Live without Dining

By Martial (c. 40–c. 104 A.D.)

NOW, if you have an axe to grind, or if you mean to spout,

If your invite is to a spread, then you must count me out:

I do not like that dark-brown taste, I dread the thought of gout,

I’m restless at the gorgeous gorge that ostentation dares.

My friend must offer me pot-luck on wash-days unawares;

I like my feed when his menu with my own larder squares.