The gods defend me : nor refuse My piety - my votive Muse. Here too by thee shall plenty's horn, With rural honours full, be borne ; Safe in the vale from Sirius' heat, On Teian strings shalt thou repeat -The victims of a common flame. With Mars in maddening conflict run. No fear lest Cyrus' wanton might Should seize thee in unequal fight; Thy inoffensive garments tear, And rend the chaplet from thy hair. ODE XVIII. TO VARUS. VARUS, the sacred vine best pays thy toil Wine - wine alone dispels our biting cares. By wine inspir'd, who rails at want or war? Who sings not Venus' charms, and Bacchus' car? But see- lest moderate orgies we exceed Where drunken Lapithæ, and Centaurs bleed. Thus angry Bacchus taught the Thracian throng, Whose greedy lust confounded right with wrong. Not thee unwilling-Bacchus, will I rouse, Nor rites reveal, conceal'd by various boughs. Cease thy dread cymbals, and thy Phrygian horn, Which pride - with empty head too lofty borne And blind self-love pursue, and Faith-like glass Displaying secrets to the crowds that pass. ODE XIX. TO GLYCERA. THE mother and the queen of love, With lawless licence, bid me prove I burn to view the saucy grace, Bids me no more of Scythians write, Here, slaves, live turf-unsparing-fling, Here frankincense, and vervain bring, -The two-year cask:- -a victim slain, My Glycera may be kind again! ODE XX. TO MECENAS. VILE Sabine can my humble board, The theatre's applauses woo'd The banks of thy paternal flood; Thee Cæcuban may better please, ODE XXI. SING, tender maids, Diana's name; Sing her, who seeks the stream and shade On chilly Algidum display'd, In Erymanthus' woodland scene, Or Cragus rob'd in nature's purest green. |