In Memoriam. - Cvi.

The time admits not flowers or leaves      To deck the banquet. Fiercely flies      The blast of North and East, and ice     Makes daggers at the sharpen'd eaves,     And bristles all the brakes and thorns      To yon hard crescent, as she hangs      Above the wood which grides and clangs     Its leafless ribs and iron horns     Together, in the drifts that pass,      To darken on the rolling brine      That breaks the coast. But fetch the wine,     Arrange the board and brim the glass;     Bring in great logs and let them lie,      To make a solid core of heat;      Be cheerful-minded, talk and treat     Of all things ev'n as he were by:     We keep the day with festal cheer,      With books and music. Surely we      Will drink to him whate'er he be,     And sing the songs he loved to hear.     In Memoriam.     Non hora myrto, non violis sinit     Nitere mensas. Trux Aquilo foras      Bacchatur, ac passim pruina      Tigna sagittifera coruscant;     Horretque saltus spinifer, algidae     Sub falce lunae, dum nemori imminet,      Quod stridet illiditque costis      Cornua, jam vacuis honorum,     Ferrata; nimbis praetereuntibus,     Ut incubent tandem implacido sali      Qui curvat oras. Tu Falernum      Prome, dapes strue, dic coronent     Crateras: ignis cor solidum, graves     Repone truncos. Jamque doloribus      Loquare securus fugatis      Quae socio loquereris illo;     Hunc dedicamus laetitiae diem     Lyraeque musisque. Illius, illius      Da, quicquid audit: nec silebunt      Qui numeri placuere vivo.