The elegies of Tibullus are less learned than those of his contemporaries. They contain many mythological allusions, but these are simply expressed and do not form too large a part of the poems. The sentiments expressed are not virile or powerful, but gentle and pensive. Tibullus loves the life of the country and hates war; he feels deeply the woes that oppress the lover; the thought of death weighs upon him; but love is ever in his heart. His poems are masterpieces of expression and versification, though they lack the fire of passionate emotion. Two brief selections[73] from the third elegy of Book I may give at least some idea of the quality of his sentiment: While you, Messalla, plough th’ Ægean sea, O sometimes kindly deign to think of me; Me, hapless me, Phæacian shores detain, Unknown, unpitied, and oppressed with pain. Yet spare me, Death, ah, spare me and retire; No weeping mother’s here to light my pyre; Here is no sister, with a sister’s woe, Rich Syrian odors on the pile to throw; But chief, my soul’s soft partner is not here, Her locks to loose, and sorrow o’er my bier. So the poem begins. The poet laments his enforced delay at Corcyra, where he is detained by illness. There follows a list of the bad omens that warned Tibullus not to set out from Rome, then a prayer to Isis for aid. A brief description of the Golden Age is introduced, and the poet prays that Jove may grant him life: But, if the Sisters have pronounced my doom, Inscribed be these upon my humble tomb: “Lo! here inurn’d a youthful poet lies, Far from his Delia and his native skies, Far from the lov’d Messalla, whom to please Tibullus followed over land and seas.” The remainder of the poem consists of a description of the lower world and an appeal to Delia. No translation can render exactly the qualities of expression which make Tibullus one of the greatest among the lesser Roman poets. It is only after repeated reading of his poems that one learns to appreciate the lightness of touch and the technical perfection of this sweet singer of soft themes.