Page:Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.djvu/118

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It is a characteristic of Tibullus, beyond almost any other of his elegiac brotherhood, that a tender melancholy breathes constantly through his poetry, and that the most pleasing pictures of serene content are anon overclouded by a tinge of sad forecast. Indeed, he makes the uncertain but lowering future an argument for using the present opportunities of enjoyment. Thus, in the close of the elegy from which we have just quoted, he mingles gay and grave:—

but seemingly in the end allows the gay spirit to predominate. Next apparently in order to the above elegy comes one composed by Tibullus on his sickbed in Corcyra (El. iii., bk. 1), and nominally addressed to Messala, though the burden of it first and last is