How is it that the loveliest lands
Of Mother Earth are barren sands?
The best and boldest once they bore,
Alas! these races are no more.
Wisdom went forth from sea to sea
To join her sister Poetry;
Unlike that Wisdom, call’d the true,
Ready to gibbet me and you,
Because we may not quite find out,
And seem in some degree to doubt,
That they can make our sins weigh lighter,
Or life’s expiring lamp shine brighter.
Ye men of Croton! grew ye brave
By listening to a lazy knave,
Who caught and held you from the school
Where Samos sent her sage to rule;
Where Milo swung his cestus round
And only fear’d to strike and wound.
O for the days so blythe and free
When piped the swains of Sicily!
The glorious days when mutual song,
Mountains and vales and woods among,
Ascended under smiling skies,
And opposite more radiant eyes;
Days when the gravest Gods above
Laught at a tale of wily Love,
And jeer’d each other; for they knew
It was but what they used to do;
When Jupiter was heard to say
Amid the dreaminess of day,
“Eat the vine-berries when ye please,
But when ye kiss abstain from cheese:
Drink from the spring when ye are dry,
But lay the flask and flagon by:
Check petulance in kid or goat,
But seize no rival by the throat.
Never hurl hatred back agen,
But one caress repay with ten.
I have so many things to do
I can no longer talk with you,
But bid my daughter and her son
Report what youths and maids have done.
Smile not, thou youth! shrink not, thou maid!
Nor thou be bold, nor thou afraid.
Gentle as ye may deem her now,
With not a frown across the brow,
My daughter is as strong as I,
And, where she bids, his arrows fly:
He bears no thunder; but he bears
Enough to deluge earth of tears.
Keep my commandments; hers too keep,
Or she will give you cause to weep:
In brief, whoever contravenes
We banish from these blissful scenes.”