ODE IV.

TO SESTIUS.

WINTER severe departs;

the new-born spring,

And zephyrs mild their grateful contrast bring:
The cable hauls the vessel from the shore,
And now the cattle seek their stalls no more;
No more the ploughman's cheerful fires delight,
Nor shine the meadows, with the hoar-frost white.
Now Cytherean Venus leads the dance,
And Nymphs and Graces by the moon advance;
With comely feet they beat the ground by turns,
While Cyclops' forge with ardent Vulcan burns.
Now with green myrtle bind the shining hair,
And wreathe the flowers the teeming meadows bear.

Now crown the votive lamb, or tender kid,

As Faunus from his shadowy grove shall bid.
Pale death, with equal foot, is wont to beat

The peasant's cottage, and the prince's seat.

O happy Sestius!-life's contracted day

Of lengthen'd hope excludes the distant ray;
Thee soon dark night-with Manes' fabled train-
And Pluto's gloomy mansion, shall restrain;
Where-

once arrived. no longer shalt thou know

The wine's dominion by the dice's throw;

No longer tender Lycidas admire,

Whom maids shall soon-as now our youths desire.

ODE V.

TO PYRRHA.

WHAT graceful youth, where roses bloom,

-Besprinkled o'er with rich perfume-
Engages thee in pleasant grot?

Say, Pyrrha, say for whom the knot
To which those golden locks you braid,
In nature's simple loveliness array'd?

Alas! how oft will he deplore

Faith, and the gods the same no more!
Whose inexperience-wondering-eyes
The stormy waves, and blacken❜d skies;
Who clasps thee-credulous to find

A treasure ever free and ever kind,

Nor dreams of the inconstant breeze.

Ah, hapless! whom — untried—you please!
The sacred wall the sea-god's care
Shows, by a votive tablet there,

My dripping vest suspended high

-An offering to the ocean-deity!

ODE VI.

TO AGRIPPA.

VARIUS thy courage shall recite,
In stanzas of Moonian flight;
How conquer'd foes by sea and land
Fled from Agrippa's warlike band.

But heights like these affright my lyre;
Pelides' bold, unbending ire-

Ulysses' weary route to trace

Through seas- and Pelops' cruel race;·
Whilst modesty would fain refuse,
And Rome's unwarlike lyric Muse,
Great Cæsar's, and Agrippa's praise
To lessen by unworthy lays.

Who, who shall warlike Mars express,

Enrobed in adamantine dress?

Who Merion dark charioteer

Whom Trojan mud and dust besmear?
Or Diomed, by Minerva's aid,

Equal to heaven's immortals made?

We banquets sing, and virgin-fights

With sharpen'd nails, 'gainst youthful knights;

Our hearts inflam'd, or fancy-free

With all our wonted levity.

ODE VII.

TO MUNATIUS PLANCUS.

SOME Mitylene praise, or Rhodes' renown,
Some Ephesus, or Corinth's isthmus-town;
Lyæan Thebes, Apollo's Delphian fane,
Or flowery Tempe's sweet Thessalian plain.