[2]THEE bright Learning's ivy crown
Exalts above a mortal fate;
_Me_ shady Groves, light Nymphs, and Satyrs brown,
Raise o'er the Crowd, in sweet sequester'd state.
And there is heard the Lesbian lute,
And there Euterpe's Dorian flute;
But, should'st thou rank me with the LYRIC CHOIR,
To GLORY's starry heights thy Poet would aspire.--
1: The Romans, in general, made no regular meal till the business of
the day was over. They considered a mid-day feast as a mark of
indolence and luxury.
2: “_Diis miscent superis._] A manner of expression not unusual
amongst the Greeks and Latins, for any eminent degree of happiness.
Unless we adopt this explanation of the words, says Dacier, we shall
make Horace guilty of a manifest contradiction, since a few lines
farther he tells his Patron, that _his suffrage_, not the _ivy crown_
is that, which will exalt him to the skies. The judicious emendation
of the late Bishop of Chichester, who for _Me doctarum_, reads _Te
doctarum_, removes all objection; and adds beauty to the Ode by the
fine compliment it contains to Mæcenas.” BROM. HOR.