If rich, and sprung from lines of fame, We are all onward urged,-the urn HORACE. EPODE 2. PLEASURES OF A COUNTRY LIFE. HAPPY the man, remote from toil and care, Who ploughs his native field with his own team, Well pleased around his poplars tall to twine To prune the useless shoots, and in their place In the far deepening vale, wandering at ease, In shining jars the clear pressed honey pours, Or when dame Autumn rears her honoured head, Large drooping from the boughs, the yellow pear Thy votive gift, Priapus! Sylvan, thine, VOL. II.-BB B How sweet to lie, 'neath some old oak reclining, Or where the tall grass round is twining; Through its tall banks the still stream glides along, Birds wake their sadly pleasing song, And fountains near their murmuring descant keep, But winter comes, at thundering Jove's command, Here caught, the trembling puss, the stranger crane Who thus employed, has time or wish to prove But ah! should some chaste dame adorn his hall, (Like fair Sabina, or the browner bride, Who bids the sacred hearth more brightly burn, Folds up the herd right glad her cares to meet, And drains each well distended teat, - Then from the well loved cask the wine draws forth, Cheering, though of little worth,— And joyous, for her lord, with active zeal, Prepares the frugal unbought meal With such, nor Lucrine oysters more I'd prize, Nor turbot of majestic size, Nor scarcer fish, if any winter bore, From eastern waters near our shore. Not Afric's fowl could prove a daintier treat, Or wholesome mallows, or green sorrel, still Wandering o'er the meads at will; Or the kid rescued from the wolf's fell bite, And at the feast how pleasant to behold The flocks swift bounding to the fold; To mark the weary oxen dragging slow, With drooping necks the inverted plough; And all the household slaves, a swarming band, Around the glittering lares stand. Thus spoke the usurer Alphius, in his thought He called in all his funds in the Ides; but when WEEHAWKEN. EVE o'er our path is stealing fast; The mountain's mirror'd outline fades Its shaggy bulk, in sterner pride, Towers, as the gloom steals o'er the tide ; For the great stream a bulwark meet That leaves its rock-encumbered feet. River and Mountain! though to song Yet should the stranger ask, what lore |