And, hearing it,
Flutter and crow as in a fit
Of fresh concupiscence, and cry:
_No lust there's like to poetry_.

Thus, frantic-crazy man, God wot,
I'll call to mind things half-forgot,
And oft between
Repeat the times that I have seen!
Thus ripe with tears,
And twisting my Iuelus' hairs,
Doting, I'll weep and say, in truth,
Baucis, these were my sins of youth.

Then next I'll cause my hopeful lad,
If a wild apple can be had,
To crown the hearth,
Lar thus conspiring with our mirth;
Then to infuse
Our browner ale into the cruse,
Which sweetly spic'd, we'll first carouse
Unto the Genius of the house.

Then the next health to friends of mine,
Loving the brave Burgundian wine,
High sons of pith,
Whose fortunes I have frolicked with;
Such as could well
Bear up the magic bough and spell;
And dancing 'bout the mystic thyrse,
Give up the just applause to verse:

To those, and then again to thee,
We'll drink, my Wickes, until we be
Plump as the cherry,
Though not so fresh, yet full as merry
As the cricket,
The untam'd heifer, or the pricket,
Until our tongues shall tell our ears
We're younger by a score of years.

Thus, till we see the fire less shine
From th' embers than the kitling's eyne,
We'll still sit up,
Sphering about the wassail-cup
To all those times
Which gave me honour for my rhymes.
The coal once spent, we'll then to bed,
Far more than night-bewearied.

_Posthumus_, the name is taken from Horace, Ode ii. 14, from which the
beginning of this lyric is translated.
_Repullulate_, be born again.
_Anchus and rich Tullus._ Herrick is again translating from Horace (Ode
iv. 7, 14).
_Baiae_, the favourite sea-side resort of the Romans in the time of
Horace.
_Pollio_, Vedius Pollio, who fed his lampreys with human flesh. _Ob_.,
B.C. 15.
_Bawdery_, dirt (with no moral meaning).
_Circular_, self-sufficing, the "in se ipso totus teres atque rotundus"
of Horace. Sat. ii. 7, 86.
_Iuelus_, the son of AEneas.
_Pith_, marrow.
_Thyrse_, bacchic staff.
_Pricket_, a buck in his second year.

337. A SHORT HYMN TO VENUS.

Goddess, I do love a girl,
Ruby-lipp'd a