ODE X.
49
Away, deceitful cares, away!
And let me listen to his lay,
While flow'ry dreams my soul employ;
While turtle-wing'd the laughing hours
Lead hand in hand the festal pow'rs,
Lead youth and love, and harmless joy.
Broke from the fetters of his native land,
Devoting shame and vengeance to her lords,
With louder impulse and a threat'ning hand,
The [1]Lesbian patriot smites the sounding chords:
Ye wretches, ye perfidious train,
Ye curst of Gods and free-born men,
Ye murd'rers of the laws,
Tho' now you glory in your lust,
Tho' now you tread the feeble neck in dust,
Yet Time and righteous Jove will judge your dreadful cause.
G
But
- ↑ Alcæus of Mitylene, the capital of Lesbos, who fled from his native city to escape the oppression of those who had inslav'd it, and wrote against them in his exile those noble invectives which are so much applauded by the ancient Critics.
