‘How can I know the best state?’

The night-sprite, sighing, through the dim air stirs;The clouds descend in rain;Mourning, the wan stars wane,Flickering like dying lamps in sepulchres!Haggard as spectres–vision-like and dumb,Dark with the pomp of death, and moving slow,Towards that sad lair the pale procession comeWhere the grave closes on the night below.With dim, deep-sunken eye,Crutched on his staff, who trembles…

Time flies on restless pinions–constant never.Be constant–and thou chainest time forever.

‘I’ll give thee treasures without end,If thou wilt be my friend instead.’‘My choicest gifts to him I gave,And ever blest him with my smile;And yet he ceases not to crave,And calls me niggard all the while.’‘Come, sister, let us friendship vow!So take the money, nothing loth;Why always labor at the plough?Here is enough I’m sure…

For those who on the Olympian hill rejoice–Moons wane, and races wither to the tomb,And ‘mid the universal ruin, bloomThe rosy days of Gods–With man, the choice,Timid and anxious, hesitates betweenThe sense’s pleasure and the soul’s content;While on celestial brows, aloft and sheen,The beams of both are blent.Seekest thou on earth the life of gods…

Aided by their warming vigor,Nature yields the golden wine.How the wondrous mother formeth,None have ever read aright;Hid forever is her working,And inscrutable her might.Sparkling as a son of Phoebus,As the fiery source of light,From the vat it bubbling springeth,Purple, and as crystal bright;And rejoiceth all the senses,And in every sorrowing breastPoureth hope’s refreshing balsam,And on…