Nor here presumes denial any stormy coast
Of Adriatic or the Cyclad orbed isles,
A Rhodos immemorial, or that icy Thrace,
Propontis, or the gusty Pontic ocean-arm,
10 Whereon, a pinnace after, in the days of yore
A leafy shaw she budded; oft Cytorus' height
With her did inly whisper airy colloquy.
2.
Amastris, you by Pontus, you, the box-clad hill
Of high Cytorus, all, the pinnace owns, to both
15 Was ever, is familiar; in the primal years
She stood upon your hoary top, a baby tree,
Within your haven early dipt a virgin oar:
To carry thence a master o'er the surly seas,
A world of angry water, hail'd to left, to right
20 The breeze of invitation, or precisely set
The sheets together op'd to catch a kindly Jove.
Nor yet of any power whom the coasts adore
Was heard a vow to soothe them, all the weary way
From outer ocean unto glassy quiet here.
25 But all the past is over; indolently now
She rusts, a life in autumn, and her age devotes
To Castor and with him ador'd, the twin divine.
V.
Living, Lesbia, we should e'en be loving.
Sour severity, tongue of eld maligning,
All be to us a penny's estimation.
Suns set only to rise again to-morrow.
5 We, when sets in a little hour the brief light,
Sleep one infinite age, a night for ever.