Pindar and Anacreon/Anacreon/Ode 59

by Anacreon

ODE LIX.—ON HIMSELF.^[1]

Methought, in sleep's delightful trance,
I saw Anacreon advance;

The tuneful Teian, skill'd to sing
The lays of love on warbling string.
I hasten'd to his kind embrace,
And kiss'd his sweetly smiling face.
Though somewhat old, he seemed to wage
Successful war with spiteful age:
For love still beam'd in each bright eye,
And from his lips there seem'd to fly
Sweet gales of rich and rosy wine,
Which shed a fragrance quite divine.
His slow and staggering steps were stay'd
By laughing Cupid's kindly aid.
The garland that intwined his hair
The bard unbound and bade me wear.
Anacreon's burning soul it breathed,
And I with it my brows enwreathed.
E'er since my heart is doom'd to prove
The pleasing pains of lasting love.

1. In the Vatican copy this is placed as the first of Anacreon's odes. By many it is thought that he was not the author, because he himself is the subject of it. Barnes endeavours to prove that he was, by a reference to the ninth ode, in which Anacreon makes mention of himself, and to similar instances of poets introducing their names in their works.