As thou, to whom the Muse commends
The best of poets and of friends,
Doft thy committed pledge restore,
And land him fafely on the shore;
And save the better part of me,
From perishing with him at sea,
Sure he, who first the passage try'd,
In harden'd oak his heart did hide,
And ribs of iron arm'd his fide ;
Or his at least, in hollow wood
Who tempted first the briny flood :
Nor fear'd the winds contending roar,
Nor billows beating on the shore ;
Nor Hyades portending rain;
Nor all the tyrants of the main.
What form of death could him affright,
Who unconcern’d, with stedfast fight,
Could view the surges mounting steep,
And monsters rolling in the deep !
Could thro’ the ranks of ruin go,
With storms above, and rocks below!
In vain did Nature's wife command
Divide the waters from the land,
If daring ships and men propbane
Invade th’inviolable main ;
Th'eternal fences over-leap,
And pafs at will the boundless deep.
No toil, no hardship can restrain
Ambitious man inur'd to pain ;
The more confin'd, the more he tries,
And at forbidden
quarry
Aies.
'Thus bold Prometheus did afpiré,
And stole from Heav'n the feeds of fire :
A train of ills, a ghaftly crew,
The robber's blazing track parfue ;
Fierce famine with her meagre face,
And fevers of the fiery race,
In swarms th' offending wretch surround,
All brooding on the blasted ground:
And limping death, lash'd on by fate,
Comes up to shorten half our date.
This made not Dedalus beware,
With borrow'd wings to fail in air:
To hell Alcides forc'd his way,
Plung'd thro' the lake, and snatch'd the prey.
Nay scarce the Gods, or heavenly climes,
Are safe from our audacious crimes ;
We reach at Jove's imperial crown.
And pull th' unwilling thunder down.
1.
EHOLD yon mountain's hoary height
Made higher with new mounts of snow ;
Again behold the winter's weight
Oppress the lab'ring woods below:
And streams, with icy fetters bound,
Benamb’d and crampt to folid ground.
II.
With well-heap'd logs dissolve the cold,
And feed the genial hearth with fires;
Produce the wine, that makes us bold,
And sprightly wit and love inspires :
For what hereafter shall betide,
God, if 'tis worth his care, provide.
III.
Let him alone, with what he made,
To tofs and turn the world below;
At his command the storms invade;
The winds by his commission blow;
Till with a nod he bids 'em cease,
And then the calm returns, and all is peace.
IV.
To-morrow and her works defy,
Lay hold upon the present hour,
And snatch the pleasures passing by,
To put them out of fortune's pow'r : Nor love, nor love's delights disdain ; Whate'er thou get'st to-day, is gain.
V. Secure those golden early joys,
That youth unsour’d with sorrow bears,
Ere with’ring time the taste destroys,
With fickness and unweildy years.
For active sports, for pleafing rest,
This is the time to be possest;
The best is but in season belt.
VI.
Th' appointed hour of promis'd bliss,
The pleasing whisper in the dark,
The half unwilling willing kiss,
The laugh that guides thee to the mark,
When the kind nymph would coyness feign,
And hides but to be found again ;
These, these are joys the Gods for youth ordain.
Twenty-ninth Ode of the First Book
Paraphras'd in Pindaric verse, and infcribed to the
Right Hon. Laurence Earl of Rochester.
1. Escended of an ancient line,
That long the Tuscan scepter sway'd, Make hafte to meet the generous wine,
Whose piercing is for the delay'd : The rosy wreath is ready made;
And artful hands prepare
The fragrant Syrian oil, that fhall perfume thy hair.
II.
When the wine sparkles from afar,
And the well-natur'd friend cries, Come away ; Make hafte, and leave thy business and thy care: No mortal intrest can be worth thy stay.
III.
Leave for a while thy coftly country feat;
And, to be great indeed, forget
The nauseous pleasures of the great:
Make haste and come :
Cone,
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