Where poplar white and giant pine Ward off the inhospitable beam; Where their luxuriant branches twine, Where bickers down its course the stream, Here bid them perfumes bring, and wine, And the fair rose's short-lived flower, While youth and fortune and the twine Spun by the Sisters, grant an hour. We all must tread the path of Fate, And ever shakes the fateful urn, Whose lot embarks us, soon or late, On Charon's boat--beyond return. TO A FAIR DECEIVER Did any punishment attend Thy former perjuries, I should believe a second time, Thy charming flatteries: Did but one wrinkle mark thy face Or hadst thou lost one single grace. No sooner hast thou, with false vows, Provoked the powers above, But thou art fairer than before, And we are more in love. Thus Heaven and Earth seem to declare They pardon falsehood in the fair. The nymphs, and cruel Cupid too, Sharpening his pointed dart On an old home besmeared with blood, Forbear thy perjured heart. Fresh youth grows up to wear thy chains, And the old slave no freedom gains. THE GOLDEN MEAN The man who follows Wisdom's voice, And makes the Golden Mean his choice, Nor plunged in squalid gloomy cells Midst hoary desolation dwells; Nor to allure the envious eye Rears a proud palace to the sky; The man whose steadfast soul can bear Fortune indulgent or severe, Hopes when she frowns, and when she smiles With cautious fear eludes her wiles. TO THE FOUNTAIN OF BANDUSIA Bandusia's Well, that crystal dost outshine, Worthy art thou of festal wine and wreath! An offered kid to-morrow shall be thine, Whose swelling brows his earliest horns unsheath. And mark him for the feats of love and strife. In vain: for this same youngling from the fold Of playful goats shall with his crimson life Incarnadine thy waters fresh and cold. The blazing Dog-star's unrelenting hour Can touch thee not: to roaming herd or bulls O'erwrought by plough, thou giv'st a shady bower, Thou shalt be one of Earth's renowned pools! For I shall sing thy grotto ilex-crowned, Whence fall thy waters of the babbling sound. TO THE GOD FAUNUS O Faun-god, wooer of each nymph that flees, Come, cross my land! Across those sunny leas, Tread thou benign, and all my flock's increase Bless ere thou go. In each full year a tender kid be slain, If Venus' mate, the bowl, be charged amain With wine, and incense thick the altar stain Of long ago. The herds disport upon the grassy ground, When in thy name December's Nones come round; Idling on meads the thorpe, with steers unbound, Its joys doth show.