1. Time's returning hand but a hand extended,
Like Time's own hand, to smite and mar;

2. Events to be shunned it hath for me minted,
Others with clemency rife and fair:

3. To-day I saw Indigence press for blood
On noblest vein Pacifence; while my food

4. Was what Abú-Husain, Ibn Abi-Nasr,
Prepared, my host sans peevishness.