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TO LYCE.

WERE you to live beyond the Tweed,

To some proud Lord of ancient breed
In jarring wedlock join'd;

Still, LYCE, I'd besiege your gate,
And brave, although severe my fate,
The native northern wind.

Not that I want so far to roam,
We've ice and snow enough at home;
And, hark! it storms around:

The trees before your windows rock,
And, bursting open with the shock,
Your clattering doors rebound.

ODE X. LIB. 3.

EXTREMUM Tanaïm si biberes, Lyce,
Sævo nupta viro; me tamen asperas
Porrectum ante fores objicere incolis
Plorares Aquilonibus.

Audis quo strepitu janua, quo nemus
Inter pulchra situm tecta remugiat
Ventis? Et positas ut glaciet nives
Puro numine Jupiter?

Then, prithee, be no more deny'd!
But lay these prudish airs aside,

And let us meet at dinner;

Virtue at best is but a feint,
And many a pious-looking saint
Is secretly a sinner.

To you I freely lose at cards,

I write, to please you, dull charades,
Since nonsense is in fashion;

And wear, with tender thoughts imprest,
Your fav'rite colour-" Sigh supprest,'

Sweet emblem of my passion.

Ingratam Veneri pone superbiam,
Ne currente retro funis eat rotâ.

Non te Penelopen difficilem procis
Tyrrhenus genuit parens.

* Le Soupir Etouffé was a fashionable colour when this imitation was done.

If these avail not, can you bear,
Unmov'd, a husband's alter'd air
Who robs you of your due ?

Ne'er sleeps at home when free from gout,
Unless his mistress turn him out,

And beat him black and blue !

Had love no joys, revenge were sweet;
I'm sick of freezing in the street,
And near your house parading:
Then kindly ease a lover's pain-
England is not so warm as Spain,
Nor fit for serenading.

O, quamvis neque te munera nec preces,
Nec tinctus violâ pallor amantium,
Nec vir Pieriâ pellice saucius

Curvat; supplicibus tuis

Parcas, nec rigidâ mollior æsculo,
Nec Mauris animum mitior anguibus.
Non hoc semper erit liminis, aut aquæ
Cœlestis patiens latus.

TO FLAVIA,

ON THE LOSS OF HER LAP-DOG,

CALLED TEAZER.

THOUGH black'ning clouds in gath'ring rains
Descend, and deluge all the plains;

And vex th' Atlantic Ocean :
A calm succeeds-the sun appears,
Nature no more is bath'd in tears,
The deep scarce heaves with motion.

In May, on Scandinavia's coast,
The rivers flow, though chilling frost
In icy chains had bound 'em;

ODE IX.-LIB. 2.

NON semper imbres nubibus hispidos

Manant in agros; aut mare Caspium

Vexant inæquales procellæ

Usque; nec Armeniis in oris,

Amice Valgi, stat glacies iners

Menses per omnes; aut Aquilonibus

And the tall oaks, on Spring's return,
No more their leafless branches mourn;
But spread their foliage round 'em.

Yet FLAVIA, in eternal strains,
Of TEAZER'S cruel fate complains,
Grows thin and pale with fretting!
And still she weeps, and still she sighs,
Whether the sun begins to rise,

Or hastens to his setting.

Not so her aunt; though she-poor soul!

At eighty lost her dear PATROLE,*

By a mad bull-dog bitten:

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