The lover swears that in a harlot's arms
Are found the self-same charms,
And worthless and deserted lives and dies.
3 Behold, unbless'd at home,
The father of the cheerless household mourns:
The night in vain returns,
For Love and glad Content at distance roam;
While she, in whom his mind
Seeks refuge from the day's dull task of cares,
To meet him she prepares,
Through noise and spleen and all the gamester's art,
A listless, harass'd heart,
Where not one tender thought can welcome find.
4 'Twas thus, along the shore
Of Thames, Britannia's guardian Genius heard,
From many a tongue preferr'd,
Of strife and grief the fond invective lore:
At which the queen divine
Indignant, with her adamantine spear
Like thunder sounding near,
Smote the red cross upon her silver shield,
And thus her wrath reveal'd;
(I watch'd her awful words, and made them mine.)
* * * * *
NOTES.
BOOK FIRST.
ODE XVIII, STANZA II.--2.
Lycurgus the Lacedemonian lawgiver brought into Greece from Asia
Minor the first complete copy of Homer's works.
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