Poems on Several Occasions :: :: University of Virginia Library

What profit to have fill'd the heav'n with vows,
And endless pray'r, sent up in frankincense:
Not, from the threshold of a marble house,
To walk abroad, conspicuous for expense:
Not, that my bulls should many acres cleave,
And weighty harvests the kind land display:
But that with thee, Neæra, I should live,
And in thy bosom find my age decay:
Till, forc'd, the full pre-measur'd light discharg'd,
Naked in the Lethæan boat I go:
For what avails, t' have pond'rous gold enlarg'd,
Or that fat fields a thousand oxen plow?

232

What can a dome, on Phrygian columns rais'd,
Of thine, O Tænarus, or Carystos, thine?
Where orchards for the sacred groves are prais'd,
Where beams of gold, and floors of marble shine?
What can the shell, by th' Erythræan seas,
Or wool, in Sidon's softest purple dyed?
Or what the people else admire? in these
Is Envy: to false things their love is tied.
By riches not the minds of men, and cares
Are sooth'd; for Fortune ever sits the higher:
Happy with thee a poor estate who shares;
But without thee kings' gifts I not desire.
O snowy light, which makes thee ours again!
O beauteous day to me for ever dear!
But for that sweet return if vows are vain,
And the God listens with averted ear:
Not kingdoms, nor the golden Lydian flood,
Nor riches of the boundless world can charm:
Be others great; be mine the better good,
To fold a tender wife without alarm.
Saturnia, come, to my soft vows reply;
And come, O Cypria, in thy foamy shell:

233

But if the tristful Sisters this deny,
Who draw the threads, and who the future tell:
Me to vast rivers, and the gloomy lake,
Let Orcus, rich in slothful water, take.