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The works of Horace, translated into verse

With a prose interpretation, for the help of students. And occasional notes. By Christopher Smart ... In four volumes

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 XXXI. 
ODE XXXI. TO APOLLO.
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115

ODE XXXI. TO APOLLO.

He asks not riches of the God, but only a sound mind in a sound body

What shall the pious poet pray
Upon the dedication day;
What vow prefer to this Phæbean shrine,
While from the bowl he pours the first-fruits of his wine?
Not the rich crop Sardinia yields,
Nor of Calabria's sunny fields
The herds I ask, nor elephants nor gold,
Nor grounds of which still Liris leaves the tale untold.
Let the Calenian grape be press'd
By those whom fortune has possess'd;
Let the rich merchant in gold cups exhaust
The wine, which to replace his Syrian venture cost:
Dear to the Gods, since thrice or more
In one year he can travel o'er
Th' Atlantic sea undamag'd, while with me
Sweet olives, mallows light, and succ'ry best agree.

117

Grant, God of song, this humble lot,
But to enjoy what I have got,
And I beseech thee keep my mind intire
In age without disgust, and with the chearful lyre.
 

So-called from Atlas the highest mountain in Mauritania, which is the extremity of Africa towards the streight of Gades (now Cadiz) beyond which the Romans at that time had but little notion of land.