Classic Poem

May Peace, may Plenty bless our happy state
And social feast; for civic war I hate.
Sky-dwelling Zeus! above our city stand
And o'er her safely spread thy guardian hand.
Smile, every god! and Phaebus, thou, dispense
The mind of wit, the tongue of eloquence:
Let harp and pipe in sacred song combine,
And with libations of the sprinkled wine
Appeasing heaven, let converse blithe be ours,
And goblets, dreadless of the Median Powers.

So it is best to trifle life away,
Our minds with care unburdened, light and gay;
So from dark ills of fate our thoughts defend
From age pernicious and our mortal end.
In youth I blithesome sport; for soon shall fly
My spirit; and my body deep shall lie
Beneath the eternal ground; while years roll on
Laid motionless and speechless as a stone.