Ad Dellium.

Evening Star, Issue 7443, 11 February 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

Ad Dellium.

Hohack, ii., 8.

Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow wedie. Remember, Dellius, in the evil time, To bear thy burden with an equal mind ; And when thy prosperous sun shall reach his

prime, Restrain the heart to reckless mirth inclined For death shall come, my Dellius, though thou

Thy days iu dismal sadness, or recline Through all the happy hours among the grass, And cheer thy soul with old Faleruiau wine. Why do the towering pine ami poplar white Delight to interweave their kindly shade ? Why doth the river iu his lushing flight In swirling ripples sweep across the glade ? Command the crimson wine, the transient flowers That deck the queenly rose, be hither brought, Ere fickle circumstance and flying hours Ard Fate’s dark threads bring all thy schemes to naught.

Thou soon must leave thy home, thy pleasant woods, Thy country house by Tiber’s tawny stream ; Thou shalt depart, and with thy lands and goods Endow thine heir beyond the dizziest dream. Though thou be rich and born of kingly race, Or drag thy life beneath a lowering sky In wretched penury and lowly place, It little recks, for all alike must die. The ocean shades are pitiless and cold ; The lots are shaken in the ruthless urn That soon or late shall doom both young and old To exile drear that knows of no return. W.G.