Page:Odes and Carmen Saeculare.djvu/73

 Well, shall I take a toper's part
 * Of fierce Falernian? let our guest,

Megilla's brother, say what dart
 * Gave the death-wound that makes him blest.

He hesitates? no other hire
 * Shall tempt my sober brains. Whate'er

The goddess tames you, no base fire
 * She kindles; 'tis some gentle fair

Allures you still. Come, tell me truth,
 * And trust my honour.—That the name?

That wild Charybdis yours? Poor youth!
 * O, you deserved a better flame!

What wizard, what Thessalian spell,
 * What god can save you, hamper'd thus?

To cope with this Chimæra fell
 * Would task another Pegasus.

HE sea, the earth, the innumerable sand, Archytas, thou couldst measure; now, alas! A little dust on Matine shore has spann'd
 * That soaring spirit; vain it was to pass

The gates of heaven, and send thy soul in quest
 * O'er air's wide realms; for thou hadst yet to die.

Ay, dead is Pelops' father, heaven's own guest,
 * And old Tithonus, rapt from earth to sky,