To Lesbia - By Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus.--CATULLUS.


  My Lesbia, let us love and live,
  And to the winds, my Lesbia, give
  Each cold restraint, each boding fear
  Of age and all her saws severe.
  Yon sun now posting to the main
  Will set,--but 'tis to rise again;--
  But we, when once our mortal light
  Is set, must sleep in endless night.
  Then come, with whom alone I'll live,
  A thousand kisses take and give!
  Another thousand!--to the store
  Add hundreds--then a thousand more!
  And when they to a million mount,
  Let confusion take the account,--
  That you, the number never knowing,
  May continue still bestowing--
  That I for joys may never pine,
  Which never can again be mine!

Morning Post, April 11, 1798.