Erotion

Dear father and dear mother: Let me crave

Your loving kindness there beyond the grave

For my Erotion, the pretty maid

Who bears these lines. Don't let her be afraid!

She's such a little lassie -- only six --

To toddle down that pathway to the Styx

All by herself! Black shadows haunt those steeps

And Cerberus the Dread who never sleeps.

May she be comforted, and may she play

About you merry as the live long day,

And in her childish prattle often tell

Of that old master whom she loved so well.

Oh earth, bear lightly on her! 'Tis her due;

The little girl so lightly bore on you.