"longam incomitata videtur Ire viam." Herg, Am, IV. 467. QUAS moriens loquor, Ida parens, en accipe voces: Accipe tu, tellus. Non ibo sola sub umbras; Fortunatorum risus ne verberet aurem, Dum caligantes campos, jam frigida, Leti, Deveniam necdum surgentibus adloquar astris : Amentem Cassandram animi. Nam lumina coram Nosse satis: quocunque feror noctuque dieque, THE SOLDIER'S DREAM. OUR bugles sang truce, for the night clouds had lowered, And the sentinel stars kept a watch in the sky; And thousands had sunk on the ground overpowered, The weary to sleep and the wounded to die. When reposing that night on my pallet of straw, By the wolf-scaring faggot that guarded the slain, At the dead of the night a sweet vision I saw, And thrice ere the morning I dreamt it again. Methought from the battle-field's dreadful array, Far, far I had roamed on a desolate track: "Twas autumn-and sunshine arose on my way To the home of my father, that welcomed me back, "Cur hæc ego somnia vidi?” Nox jam densa ruit: vigil undique sidus in æthra At mihi quem fultum custodit stramine parco Nocte super media dulcissima venit imago, Arma feramque aciem mihi deseruisse videbar, Et desolatis longum iter ire viis. Venerat auctumnus: desideriumque meorum Ad patrios ieram, sole favente, lares. S I flew to the pleasant fields traversed so oft In life's morning march, when my bosom was young; I heard my own mountain-goats bleating aloft, And I knew the sweet strain that the corn-reapers sung. Then pledged we the wine-cup, and fondly I swore From my home and my weeping friends never to part; My little ones kissed me a thousand times o'er, And my wife sobbed aloud in her fulness of heart. Stay, stay with us-rest; thou art weary and worn;" And fain was the war-broken soldier to stay: But sorrow returned with the dawning of morn, And the voice in my dreaming ear melted away. CAMPBELL. Quos jam in procinctu vitæ, jamque inscius ævi, Lustrabam toties, transferor ales agris: Audieram balare meas in rupe capellas; Sum quoque pollicitus, socia inter pocula, nunquam Oscula dant centum parvi, dein altera, nati; "Fessus et æger ades, nobis ades usque," susurrat. Fractus idem bellis miles et ipse volo. Nequicquam. Redeunte die rediere dolores. Audieram voces: sed sopor illud erat. |