And fleet-hoof’d steeds; and on dark ocean’s way

Launch the oar’d galley; few will trust the day.

Pierce on the fourth thy cask; the fourteenth prize

As holy; and when morning paints the skies

The twenty-fourth is best; (few this have known;)

But worst of days when noon has fainter grown.

These are the days of which the careful heed

Each human enterprise will favouring speed:

Others there are, which intermediate fall,

Mark’d with no auspice and unomen’d all: