Page:Pindar and Anacreon.djvu/30

22 When thus he spoke: "If fond desire,

Neptune, could e'er thy bosom fire,

Œnomaus' brazen spear restrain,

And whirl me on thy swiftest car

Victorious to th' Elean plain,

Since conquer'd in the rival war

Thirteen ill-fated suitors lie,

And still the sire delays his daughter's nuptial tie.

Nor think I bear a coward soul

Which every danger can control;

Since all the common path must tread

That leads each mortal to the dead,

Say wherefore should inglorious age

Creep slow o'er youth's inactive bloom,

And sinking in untimely gloom,

Should man desert life's busy stage

To lie unhonour'd in the tomb?

This strife be mine: and thou, whose might

Can bless the issue of the fight,

Oh! grant me thy propitious aid."

'Twas thus the ardent lover pray'd;

Nor sued with supplication vain

The mighty ruler of the main;

Who, mounted on his golden car,

And steeds' unwearied wing,

Gave him to conquer in the war

The force of Pisa's king.

Obtaining thus the virgin fair,

Her valiant hero's couch to share;

From whom six noble chieftains born,

With warlike fame their stem adorn:

Now by Alpheus' stream he lies,

Bless'd with funereal obsequies,