ULTIMA THULE

  American pride has often gloried in Seneca’s “Vision of the West”
  written more than 1800 years ago.

Venient annis
Saecula seris, quibus Oceanus
Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens
Pateat tellus, Tethysque novos
Detegat orbes, nec sit terris
Ultima Thule.

    —­Seneca

Translation

A time will come in future ages far
When Ocean will his circling bounds unbar,
And, opening vaster to the Pilot’s hand,
New worlds shall rise, where mightier kingdoms are,
Nor Thule longer be the utmost land.

THE ROMAN OF OLD

Oh, the Roman was a rogue,
  He erat, was, you bettum;
He ran his automobilis
  And smoked his cigarettum;
He wore a diamond studibus
  And elegant cravatum,
A maxima cum laude shirt
  And such a stylish hattum.

He loved the luscious hic-haec-hoc,
  And bet on games and equi: 
At times he won:  at others, though,
  He got it in the nequi. 
He winked (quousque tandem?)
  At puellas on the Forum,
And sometimes even made
  Those goo-goo oculorum!

He frequently was seen
  At combats gladiatorial,
And ate enough to feed
  Ten boarders at Memorial: 
He often went on sprees,
  And said on starting homus,
“Hic labor, opus est,
  Oh, where’s my hic-haec-domus?”

Although he lived in Rome—­
  Of all the arts the middle—­
He was (excuse the phrase)
  A horrid individ’l;
Ah, what a different thing
  Was the homo (dative homini)
Of far away B.C. 
  From us of Anno Domini!

    —­Harvard Lampoon

ICH BIN DEIN

The Journal of Education commends this ingenious poem, written in seven languages—­English, French, German, Greek, Latin, Spanish, and Italian—­as one of the best specimens of Macaronic verse in existence, and worthy of preservation by all collectors.

In tempus old a hero lived,
  Qui loved puellas deux;
He no pouvait pas quite to say
  Which one amabat mieux.
Dit-il lui-meme un beau matin,
  “Non possum both avoir,
Sed si address Amanda Ann,
  Then Kate y yo have war. 
Amanda habet argent coin,
  Sed Kate has aureas curls;
Et both sunt very agathae
  Et quite formosae girls.”
Enfin the joven anthropos,
  Philoun the duo maids,
Resolved proponere ad Kate
  Devant cet evening’s shades,
Procedens then to Kate’s domo,
  Il trouve Amanda there,
Kai quite forgot his late resolves,
  Both sunt so goodly fair,
Sed smiling on the new tapis,
  Between puellas twain,