AN ODE TO FORTUNE For who doth croak Of being broke, Or who of warfare, after drinking? Of smiling Venus And Bacchus shall we sing, I'm thinking. Of symptoms fell Historic data give us warning; When full, of nights, Is bound to have a head next morning. A friendly horn, But noisy toots, I can't abide 'em! Is stale and flat To one who knows, because he's tried 'em! The secrets of (Companionship with girls and toddy) With drunken brag Into the ken of everybody; But in the shade Let some coy maid With smilax wreathe my flagon's nozzle, Then all day long, With mirth and song, Shall I enjoy a quiet sozzle! AN ODE TO FORTUNE O LADY FORTUNE! 't is to thee I call, Dwelling at Antium, thou hast power to crown The veriest clod with riches and renown, 391 And change a triumph to a funeral. The tillers of the soil and they that vex the seas, Confessing thee supreme, on bended knees Invoke thee, all. Of Dacian tribes, of roving Scythian bands, With guiltless blood, art thou the haunting dread; The sceptre, once supreme, slips surely down Necessity precedes thee in thy way; Hope fawns on thee, and Honor, too, is seen Dancing attendance with obsequious mien; But with what coward and abject dismay The faithless crowd and treacherous wantons fly When once their jars of luscious wine run dry,— Such ingrates they! Fortune, I call on thee to bless Our king, our Cæsar girt for foreign wars! That speak degenerate shame and wickedness; TO A JAR OF WINE O GRACIOUS jar,-my friend, my twin, Or animate with love's desire, Or flame the soul with bitter scorn, TO POMPEIUS VARUS Or lull to sleep, O jar of mine! Come from your place this festal day; And there's demand for wine! Corvinus is the sort of man Who dotes on tedious argument. An advocate, his ponderous pate Is full of Blackstone and of Kent; O genial Massic flood! to thee. A modest, surreptitious nip At meal-times for his stomach's sake, How dost thou melt the stoniest hearts, We discount Hope, O gracious wine! Now, prithee, make us frisk and sing, And whilst thy charms hold out to burn TO POMPEIUS VARUS POMPEY, what fortune gives you back To the friends and the gods who love you? Once more you stand in your native land, With your native sky above you. 393 Ah, side by side, in years agone, The genial draught From the same canteen together. When honor at Philippi fell I regret to say that my feet ran away You were no poet; soldier born, You stayed, nor did you wince then. To my help, which same Has frequently saved me since then. But now you're back, let's celebrate Protract our spree Until the morrow's sun-up. THE POET'S METAMORPHOSIS MECENAS, I propose to fly To realms beyond these human portals; Of lowly birth, once shed of earth, Your Horace, precious (so you've told him), Shall soar away; no tomb of clay Nor Stygian prison-house shall hold him. TO VENUS Upon my skin feathers begin To warn the songster of his fleeting; But never mind, I leave behind Songs all the world shall keep repeating. Lo! Boston girls, with corkscrew curls, And husky westerns, wild and woolly, Methinks the West shall know me best, So cherished, I shall never die; Pray, therefore, spare your dolesome praises, Your elegies, and plaintive cries, For I shall fertilize no daisies! TO VENUS VENUS, dear Cnidian-Paphian queen! The Nymphs, and Youth,-then, then, in sooth, 395 |