Odes 2.11 (Gladstone): Quid Bellicosus

What warlike Spaniards, Quintius, mean
Or Scythians, to inquire forbear,
For Adrian waters roll between:
Nor fret for life's small needed care.

Smooth youth recedes with ebbing tide,
And beauty; soon the greybeard's day,
To sport of frolic loves denied,
Drives easy slumbers far away.

No flowers in constant form remain,
The Moons with changing horn revolve,
Nor can the mind's exhausted strain
The problem of ( for ever 'solve.

Nay rather, under plane or pine
At random stretch; our whitening hairs,
While yet we may, with roses twine;
Let Bacchus chase our biting cares.

Assyrian unguent for the head,
Quick, boy! and let the wine be quaffed;
Go temper in the river's bed
The fire of this Falernian draught.

And fetch that Lyde, arrant jade;
Her ivory lute be at her side;
Her hair be dressed like Spartan maid,
With comely topknot upwards tied.