ODE XVIII. TO VARUS. LET the vine, dearest Varus, the vine be the first Yet, that none may abuse the good gift, and o'erpass The innocent mirth of a temperate glass, A warning is set in the wine-kindled strife, Bright god of the vine, I never will share In orgies so vile and unholy, nor tear The clusters of various foliage away, That keep thy blest mysteries veil'd from the day. Then clash not the cymbals, and wind not the horn, Dread sounds, of whose maddening accents are born Blind Self-love, and Vanity lifting on high Its feather-brain'd head, as 't would strike at the sky, And Frankness, transparent as crystal, that shows In its babbling incontinence all that it knows. ODE XIX. TO GLYCERA. THE ruthless mother of wild desires, Into me rushing, hath Venus quite -- Forsaken her Cyprus, nor lets me chant The Scyths and the Parthians, dauntless in flight, Nor aught that to Love is irrelevant. Hither, boys, turf of the freshest bring, Vervain, and incense, and wine unstinted! The goddess less fiercely my heart shall sting, When the victim's gore hath her altar tinted. ODE XX. TO MECENAS. OUR Common Sabine wine shall be 'T was stored in crock of Grecian delf, Nor unto them do Formia's hills ODE XXI. IN HONOUR OF DIANA AND APOLLO. YE tender virgins fair, To great Diana sing, Ye boys, to Cynthius of the unshorn hair, And let Latona mingle with your theme, Her praises sing, ye maids, In whispering groves, and intertangled glades, Or Erymanthus with its dusky pines, Or where with verdure bright the leafy Cragus shines. Ye boys, in numbers meet, Fair Tempe's praises chant, And loved peculiar haunt ; Sing, too, his quiver with its golden gleams, And lyre, his brother's gift, that from his shoulder beams! Moved by your prayers he will Famine, and pestilence, and their trains of ill And from great Cæsar, scattering their blight, |