When Freedom has been enjoyed, confinement is insupportable. Tum demùm, exactis non infeliciter annis, ON A GOLDFINCH STARVED TO DEATH IN HIS CAGE. I. TIME was when I was free as air, My drink the morning dew; I perch'd at will on ev'ry spray, My strains for ever new. II. But gaudy plumage, sprightly strain, And form genteel were all in vain, And of a transient date; For, caught and cag'd, and starv'd to death, Soon pass'd the wiry grate. Thanks, gentle swain for all my woes, And cure of ev'ry ill! More cruelty could none express ; THE PINE-APPLE AND THE BEE. THE pine-apples, in tripple row, To ev'ry pane his trunk applied; The folly of Men aspiring to forbidden joys. But still in vain, the frame was tight, The nymph between two chariot glasses, She is the pine-apple, and he The silly unsuccessful bee. The maid who views with pensive air The show-glass fraught with glitt'ring ware, Sees watches, bracelets, rings and lockets, But sighs at thought of empty pockets; Like thine her appetite is keen, But ah, the cruel glass between! The folly of Men aspiring to forbidden joys. Our dear delights are often such, HORACE. BOOK II. ODE X. I. RECEIVE, dear friend, the truths I teach, So shalt thou live beyond the reach, Of adverse fortune's pow'r; Along the treach'rous shore, The Middle State in Society, preferable to Riches. 11. He, that holds fast the golden mean, And lives contentedly between The little and the great, Feels not the wants that pinch the poor, Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door, Imbitt'ring all his state. III. The tallest pines feel most the pow'r The bolts, that spare the mountain's side, And spread the ruin round. IV. The well-inform'd philosopher, And hopes, in spite of pain; Soon the sweet spring comes dancing forth, And nature laughs again. |