Ode to Astraeus and Eos

Sing an ode to Astraeus and Eos,
When the dawn on the sky just grows,
And a thousand trills will rise and fly
Upon twelve-foot iambic high.

Forty opinions, one deviation,
And today is not the same occasion -
I have twelve readings, all complete,
Of twelve winds, all diverse and fleet.

I have twelve stories, lush and deep,
Sweet honeyed languor, a drowsy sweep,
With the rosy-fingered goddess fair,
Gold-throned and dressed in saffron air.

I have other stories, all unalike,
With happy endings or sad to strike,
With a hundred-handed old giant grey,
And a father who wanders the sky all day.

I’ll tell you too of the brothers’ reign,
The lords of waves and the watery plain.
And how in battle great Boreas won
His glory - the fearsome, generous one.

I’ll tell you a secret, dark and deep,
That under the sea will never sleep,
And the ever-lying curse once hurled -
A hundred ships to drown in the world.

I’ll gift you for each and every mind,
And forgive me, that I left behind
The form - I committed a deviation,
And gave an anapest instead of iamb in recitation.

Forty opinions, one deviation,
And today is not the same occasion -
I have twelve readings, I have twelve signs,
Of twelve winds equal in their lines.