Odes 1.24 (Creech): Quis Desiderio

ANd who can grieve too much? what time shall end
Our mourning for so dear a Friend?
Melpomene whom Jove hath blest
With melting Voice, and mournful Tongue,
And with a Harp above the rest
Hath grac't; begin the Melancholly Song.

And doth eternal Sleep close Varus Eyes?
How soon our Pride and Glory dyes!
And where will equal Justice find,
Where steddy Faith and naked Truth
So generous, and so great a Mind?
And where an Equal to the falling Youth?

To be bewail'd by all the Good, the Just
He fell; by you, dear Virgil, most;
By you, who now dost mourn in vain,
By Pious you, who idely pray
To have thy Varus back again;
He was not lent Thee for a longer stay.

Could you with foster touch than Orpheus move
The Harp that drew the list'ning Grove,
The Grove that danc't to Tunes he play'd;
Yet Blood and Bones would scarce return,
Nor Flesh to cloath the empty shade,
The Shade that once lay naked in the Urn.

Which Mercury, a hard uneasie God
To open Fate, with frightful Rod
Hath driven thrô the gloomy Air,
And shut amongst the Shades of Night:
'Tis hard: but when We needs must bear,
Enduring Patience makes the Burthen light.