Fred on Myth

Though Orpheus won the laurel crown
He drank the bitter cup:
Eurydice first let him down
Then Maenads tore him up.

An Orpheus Complex? Fred won't fuss
With such an ancient tale
(Unlike old Freud with Oedipus)
-The thought, though, turns him pale.

Mere myth?-But that old Greek (thinks Fred)
Who told the tale as true
Had some material in his head
On which he later drew.

Footnotes from Fred

  1.

"Si la jeunesse savait, si
La vieillesse pouvait", yet
Fred brings up an anomaly
That aphorists forget.

He finds that, with the years he's spanned
In his not special case,
The savvy's finally to hand,
The pouvy still in place. 

  2.

Of course, the knowledge has its gaps,
The power sometimes fails,
And, as with all imperfect chaps,
Incompetence prevails. 

In any case, he'd hardly claim
That spoilsports like La Roche—
foucauld would ever mark his name
"Sans peur et sans reproche".