THIS passage, Sirs, may put ye, one would think, In mind of him, who, in a furious storm, Told that the vessel certainly would sink, Made a reply in the Horatian form; "Why, let it sink, then, if it will," quoth he, "I'm but a passenger, what is't to me?" So @3"non est meum,"@1 Horace here cries out, "To purchase calm with wretched vows and pray'rs; "Let them who freight the ship be thus devout, "I'm not concern'd in any of its wares." May not one ask, if common sense will read, Was ever jest and earnest more agreed? "Nay, but you see the reason," 'tis replied, "Why he rejects the bargaining of pray'r; "His little skiff will stem the raging tide "With double Pollux and with gentler air. "This is his moral," say his under-pullers, "The poor and innocent are safe in scullers." Why, so they may be, if they coast along, And shun the winds that make @3a mast to moan,@1 But here, according to the critic throng, Horace was in the ship, tho' not his own. Suppose a sculler just contriv'd for him, When the ship sunk, would his @3biremis@1 swim? Can you by any construing pretence, (If you suppose, as commentators do, Him in the Ship) make tolerable sense Of his surviving all the sinking crew? With winds so boist'rous, by what cunning twist Can his clear stars and gentle air resist? "The gifts of fortune Horace had resign'd, "And poor and honest his just fancy'd case, "Nothing to do had he with stormy wind, "Nor in Ægean seas to seek a place. "How is it likely, then, that he should mean "To paint himself in such an awkward scene? Why, but TUM @3me biremis@1 must suppose, By @3then@1 escaping that he sure was in't; And @3feret@1 too, that comes into the close In all the books that we have here in print— Both words are wrong tho', notwithstanding that, @3Tum@1 should be @3cum,@1 and @3feret@1 be @3ferat.@1 The sense or moral, if you please, is this,— @3Henceforth be probity, tho' poor, my lot, The love of riches is but an abyss Of dangerous cares, that now concern me not. Caught in its storms, let avarice implore, I thank my stars, I'm rowing safe to shore.@1 | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE FAERY FOREST by SARA TEASDALE THE CHILTERNS by RUPERT BROOKE HOLY WILLIE'S PRAYER by ROBERT BURNS IN HOSPITAL: 2. WAITING by WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY ON AN OLD MUFF by FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON POMONA by WILLIAM MORRIS (1834-1896) AMORETTI: 34 by EDMUND SPENSER |