XIV

Whose hands may touch a pure wife’s bosom chaste,
Save husband or save child her milk to taste?
What fool would dare lay hand on lion’s claws?
Clear as my glass-seen face shine wisdom’s laws.
What strength can snatch away the warrior’s brand
Ere life has ceased to inform his nervous hand?
What power can reach the poet’s inner sense,
The miser’s avarice, God’s omnipotence?