Book IX, Epigram 26 (Ker)

He who ventures to send poetry to eloquent Nerva will present you, Cosmus, with pale glaucine unguent, will give to a Paestan gardener violets and white privets, to bees of Hybla Corsican honey. Yet even a humble Muse possesses some cliarm; a cheap olive gives relish to a bass upon the board. And do not wonder that, conscious of the slender powers of her bard, my Thalia shrinks from your judgment; even Nero himself is said to have feared your critic ears when in youth he lightly touched for you some wanton theme.