When air comes rushing in autumnal rain,

And curls with many a ridge the troubled main.

[126]Men, too, may sail in spring: when first the crow

Imprinting with light steps the sands below,

As many thinly-scatter’d leaves are seen

To clothe the fig-tree’s top with tender green.

This vernal voyage practicable seems,

And pervious are the boundless ocean-streams:

I praise it not: for thou with anxious mind

Must hasty snatch th’ occasion of the wind.