May some kind god my long petition heed!

No! not dominion, nor Pactolian stream,
Nor all the riches the wide world can give!
These other men may ask. My fondest dream
Is, poor but free, with my true wife to live.

Saturnian Juno, to all nuptials kind,
Receive with grace my ever-anxious vow!
Come, Venus, wafted by the Cyprian wind,
And from thy car of shell smile on me now!

But if the mournful sisters, by whose hands
Our threads of life are spun, refuse me all--
May Pluto bid me to his dreary lands,
Where those wide rivers through the darkness fall!




ELEGY THE FOURTH

A DREAM FROM PHOEBUS


Be kinder, gods! Let not the dreams come true
Which last night's cruel slumber bade believe!
Begone! your vain, delusive spells undo,
Nor ask me to receive!