DEDICATION OF A PINNACE†,

TO CASTOR AND POLLUX.

THAT pinnace, friends, can boast that erst

'Twas swiftest of its kind;

Nor swam the bark whose fleetest burst

It could not leave behind;

Whether the toiling rower's force,
Or swelling sail impell'd its course.

This boast, it dares the shores † that bound The Adrian's stormy space t,

The Cyclad' + islands sea-girt round,

Bright Rhodes† or rugged Thrace t, The wide Propontis † to gainsay,

Or still tempestuous Pontic bayt.

There, ere it swam 'mid fleetest prows,

A grove of spreading trees

On high Cytorus' hill its boughs

Oft whisper'd in the breeze. Amastrist, pride of Pontic floods, Cytorus green with boxen woods,

Ye knew it then, and all its race,
And know the pinnace too,

Which, from its earliest rise, to grace
Thy lofty summit grew;

And in the waves that wash thy shores
Which moisten'd first its sturdy oars.

Thence many vainly-raging seas

It bore its master through;

Whether from right or left the breeze

Upon the canvas blew ;

Or prosperous to its course the gale

Spread full and square the straining sail.

No vows to Ocean's gods + it

gave,

For then no storm could shake;

When erst from that remotest wave

It sought this limpid lake:

But, ah! those days are fled at length,

And fled with them are speed and strength.

Now old, worn out, and lost to fame,

In rest that's justly due,

It dedicates this shatter'd frame,
Ye glorious twins †, to you-
To you, whose often cheering ray
Beam'd light and safety on its way.

TO LESBIA†.

LOVE, my Lesbia, while we live,
Value all the cross advice

That the surly greybeards give
At a single farthing's price.

Suns that set again may rise;

We, when once our fleeting light,

Once our day in darkness dies,

Sleep in one eternal night.

Give me kisses thousand-fold,

Add to them a hundred more;

Other thousands still be told

Other hundreds o'er and o'er.

But, with thousands when we burn, Mix, confuse the sums at last,

That we may not blushing learn

All that have between us past.

None shall know to what amount
Envy's due for so much bliss;
None for none shall ever count

All the kisses we will kiss.