From Anacron, Ode 3
Mesonuktiois poth hopais, k.t.l.
- 1'Twas now the hour when Night had driven
- 2Her car half round yon sable heaven;
- 3Boötes, only, seem'd to roll
- 4His Arctic charge around the Pole;
- 5While mortals, lost in gentle sleep,
- 6Forgot to smile, or ceas'd to weep:
- 7At this lone hour the Paphian boy,
- 8Descending from the realms of joy,
- 9Quick to my gate directs his course,
- 10And knocks with all his little force;
- 11My visions fled, alarm'd I rose,--
- 12"What stranger breaks my blest repose?"
- 13"Alas!" replies the wily child
- 14In faltering accents sweetly mild;
- 15"A hapless Infant here I roam,
- 16Far from my dear maternal home.
- 17Oh! shield me from the wintry blast!
- 18The nightly storm is pouring fast.
- 19No prowling robber lingers here;
- 20A wandering baby who can fear?"
- 21I heard his seeming artless tale,
- 22I heard his sighs upon the gale:
- 23My breast was never pity's foe,
- 24But felt for all the baby's woe.
- 25I drew the bar, and by the light
- 26Young Love, the infant, met my sight;
- 27His bow across his shoulders flung,
- 28And thence his fatal quiver hung
- 29(Ah! little did I think the dart
- 30Would rankle soon within my heart).
- 31With care I tend my weary guest,
- 32His little fingers chill my breast;
- 33His glossy curls, his azure wing,
- 34Which droop with nightly showers, I wring;
- 35His shivering limbs the embers warm;
- 36And now reviving from the storm,
- 37Scarce had he felt his wonted glow,
- 38Than swift he seized his slender bow:--
- 39"I fain would know, my gentle host,"
- 40He cried, "if this its strength has lost;
- 41I fear, relax'd with midnight dews,
- 42The strings their former aid refuse."
- 43With poison tipt, his arrow flies,
- 44Deep in my tortur'd heart it lies:
- 45Then loud the joyous Urchin laugh'd:--
- 46"My bow can still impel the shaft:
- 47'Tis firmly fix'd, thy sighs reveal it;
- 48Say, courteous host, canst thou not feel it?"