The Elegies of Tibullus | Page 5

we carnage foul, And wreckful seas, and
countless ways to die. Nay! spare me, Father Jove, for on my soul Nor
perjury, nor words blaspheming lie.
If longer life I ask of Fate in vain, O'er my frail dust this superscription
be:-- _"Here Death's dark hand_ TIBULLUS _doth detain, Messala's
follower over land and sea!"_
Then, since my soul to love did always yield, Let Venus guide it the
immortal way, Where dance and song fill all th' Elysian field, And
music that will never die away.
There many a song-bird with his fellow sails, And cheerly carols on the
cloudless air; Each grove breathes incense; all the happy vales O'er-run
with roses, numberless and fair.

Bright bands of youth with tender maidens stray, Led by the love-god
all delights to share; And each fond lover death once snatched away
Winds an immortal myrtle in his hair.
Far, far from such, the dreadful realms of gloom By those black
streams of Hades circled round, Where viper-tressed, fierce ministers of
doom,-- The Furies drive lost souls from bound to bound.
The doors of brass, and dragon-gate of Hell, Grim Cerberus guards, and
frights the phantoms back: Ixion, who by Juno's beauty fell, Gives his
frail body to the whirling rack.
Stretched o'er nine roods, lies Tityos accursed, The vulture at his vitals
feeding slow; There Tantalus, whose bitter, burning thirst The fleeting
waters madden as they flow.
There Danaus' daughters Venus' anger feel, Filling their urns at Lethe
all in vain;-- _And there's the wretch who would my Delia steal, And
wish me absent on a long campaign!_
O chaste and true! In thy still house shall sit The careful crone who
guards thy virtuous bed; She tells thee tales, and when the lamps are lit,
Reels from her distaff the unending thread.
Some evening, after tasks too closely plied, My Delia, drowsing near
the harmless dame, All sweet surprise, will find me at her side,
Unheralded, as if from heaven I came.
Then to my arms, in lovely disarray, With welcome kiss, thy darling
feet will fly! O happy dream and prayer! O blissful day! What golden
dawn, at last, shall bring thee nigh?

ELEGY THE FOURTH
THE ARTS OF CONQUEST
"Safe in the shelter of thy garden-bower, "Priapus, from the harm of
suns or snows, "With beard all shag, and hair that wildly flows,-- "O
say! o'er beauteous youth whence comes thy power? "Naked thou
frontest wintry nights and days, "Naked, no less, to Sirius' burning
rays."
So did my song implore the rustic son Of Bacchus, by his moon-shaped
sickle known.
"Comply with beauty's lightest wish," said he, "Complying love leads
best to victory. "Nor let a furious 'No' thy bosom pain; "Beauty but
slowly can endure a chain. "Slow Time the rage of lions will o'er-sway,

"And bid them fawn on man. Rough rocks and rude "In gentle streams
Time smoothly wears away; "And on the vine-clad hills by sunshine
wooed, "The purpling grapes feel Time's secure control; "In Time, the
skies themselves new stars unroll. "Fear not great oaths! Love's broken
oaths are borne "Unharmed of heaven o'er every wind and wave. "Jove
is most mild; and he himself hath sworn "There is no force in vows
which lovers rave. "Falsely by Dian's arrows boldly swear! "And
perjure thee by chaste Minerva's hair!
"Be a prompt wooer, if thou wouldst be wise: "Time is in flight, and
never backward flies. "How swiftly fades the bloom, the vernal green!
"How swift yon poplar dims its silver sheen! "Spurning the goal th'
Olympian courser flies, "Then yields to Time his strength, his victories;
"And oft I see sad, fading youth deplore "Each hour it lost, each
pleasure it forbore. "Serpents each spring look young once more; harsh
Heaven "To beauteous youth has one brief season given. "With
never-fading youth stern Fate endows "Phoebus and Bacchus only, and
allows "Full-clustering ringlets on their lovely brows.
"Keep at thy loved one's side, though hour by hour "The path runs on;
though Summer's parching star "Burn all the fields, or blackest
tempests lower, "Or monitory rainbows threaten far. "If he would
hasten o'er the purple sea, "Thyself the helmsman or the oarsman be.
"Endure, unmurmuring, each unwelcome toil, "Nor fear thy
unaccustomed hands to spoil. "If to the hills he goes with huntsman's
snare, "Let thine own back the nets and burden bear. "Swords would he
have? Fence lightly when you meet; "Expose thy body and compel
defeat. "He will be gracious then, and will not spurn "Caresses to
receive, resist, return. "He will protest, relent, and half-conspire, "And
later, all unasked, thy love desire.
"But nay! In these vile times thy skill is vain. "Beauty and youth are
sold for golden gain. "May he who first taught love to sell and