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BOOK II. ODE 14.

Eheu, fugaces, Posthume, Posthume,
Labuntur anni, &c.

I.

Ah Posthumus! How quick our years
Do slide away!
The winged hours for none will stay.
Virtue, that always pillars rears,
Eternal Monuments of Fame,
Leaving behind a lasting Name,
To her best Friend it can no time allow,
Or keep deep Furrows from his aged brow.
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II.

Should'st thou a thousand Bribes, as Offrings bring,
To the Infernal King,
'Twould move no pity in his hardn'd Breast;
'Twould give thy weary Soul no rest.
He the bold Stygian water aws:
He gives to Gerion and to Titius Laws.
Ah, sooty Lake! thy waves, alas!
We all or soon or late must pass.

III.

All the bold Mortals, that do sport
On Earths round Globe,
From the base Rabble to the Court;
From Plush and Ermins to the homely Robe,
Must all descend to Charon's Boat, and be
Wafted by him to vast Eternity.

IV.

In vain we Martial fury shun,
In vain from swelling Waves we run;
In vain we fear the ominous time
Of sickly Autumns prime.
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Down to the gloomy shore we soon must go;
Through Pitchy Waves must row,
To dread Cocytus, that amazing shoar,
Where Danaus wicked race does roar,
And Sysiphus does roll his Stone
In endless grief, alone.

V.

Thou soon thy pleasant Lands no more shalt view;
To thy dear smiling Wife shalt bid a long adieu.
Nought of thy shady Groves with thee shall go,
But the sad Cypress, that does mourning show.
Thy nobler Heir with joy shall spend
All thou didst save, and Feast his Friend;
And wash the Stones with better Wine
Than that which makes the Bishops ruby Noses shine.
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