Odes 2.9 (Gladstone): Non Semper Imbres

Not always do the rains descend
Upon the clammy fields, my friend
Valgius: nor with perpetual strain
Do storms disturb the Caspian main.

Armenia doth not always chill
With ice; nor on the Gargan hill
In northern gales oaks always groan,
Nor weeps the ash for foliage strown.

Yet Mystes lost remains thy theme
Unchanged. If Hesper rise and gleam
At even, or fly the rising sun,
Thy plaint, thy passion, still are one.

Did three-lived Nestor evermore
His lost Antilochus deplore?
Did king, queen, sisters, lengthen so
O'er the young Troilus their woe?

Let weak repinings cease at length;
Sing rather the triumphant strength
Of Caesar, and his latest deeds
'Mid snow-bound mountains of the Medes

Their river flows with bated crest;
And the Gelonian of the west,
Shut by the bounds that Rome decides,
In narrower precinct tamely rides.