Chides the South seas, may his fury lay

Green Etruria's woods in ruin, sparing thee: so many a bale

Drop to thee, whence only drop it may,

From great Jove, and Neptune watching o'er Ta

rentum's holy soil.

-Wilt commit, unrecking, an offence

Which shall harm thy innocent offspring? On thine own head may recoil

Righteous vengeance, and a recompense That shall bow thy pride. Abandoned, unavenged,

I will not be:

For such crime no offerings shall atone.

Though mayhap thy time is precious, small the boon I ask of thee:

Throw three handfuls o'er me, and begone.

ODE 38.

TO HIS SLAVE.

PERSIAN grandeur I abhor;

Linden-wreathèd crowns, avaunt:

Boy, I bid thee not explore

Woods which latest roses haunt:

Try on naught thy busy craft

Save plain myrtle; so arrayed

Thou shalt fetch, I drain, the draught

Fitliest 'neath the scant vine-shade.

BOOK III.

ODE 1.

I SCORN and shun the rabble's noise.
Abstain from idle talk. A thing

That ear hath not yet heard, I sing,
The Muses' priest, to maids and boys.

To Jove the flocks which great kings sway,
To Jove great kings allegiance owe.
Praise him he laid the giants low:
All things that are, his nod obey.

This man may plant in broader lines
His fruit-trees: that, the pride of race
Enlists a candidate for place :

In worth, in fame, a third outshines

His mates; or, thronged with clients, claims Precedence. Even-handed Fate

Hath but one law for small and great:

That ample urn holds all men's names.

He o'er whose doomed neck hangs the sword

Unsheathed, the dainties of the South

Shall lack their sweetness in his mouth :

No note of bird or harpsichord

Shall bring him Sleep. Yet Sleep is kind, Nor scorns the huts of labouring men; The bank where shadows play, the glen Of Tempe dancing in the wind.

He, who but asks 'Enough,' defies

Wild waves to rob him of his ease;

He fears no rude shocks, when he sees Arcturus set or Hædus rise:

When hailstones lash his vines, or fails
His farm its promise, now of rains
And now of stars that parch the plains
Complaining, or unkindly gales.

-In straitened seas the fish are pent;
For dams are sunk into the deep:
Pile upon pile the builders heap,

And he, whom earth could not content,

The Master. Yet shall Fear and Hate

Climb where the Master climbs: nor e'er

From the armed trireme parts black Care; He sits behind, the horseman's mate.

And if red marble shall not ease

The heartache; nor the shell that shines
Star-bright; nor all Falernum's vines,

All scents that charmed Achæmenes:

Why should I rear me halls of rare

Design, on proud shafts mounting high?
Why bid my Sabine vale goodbye

For doubled wealth and doubled care?