348 THE PATHOS OF THE ROSE IN POETRY 



Conquerimur, Natura, brevis quod gratia florum est ? 



Ostentata oculis illico dona rapis. 

 Quam longa una dies, aetas tarn longa rosarum, 



Quas pubescentes juncta senecta premit. 

 Quam modo nascentem rutilus conspexit Eous, 



Hanc rediens sero vespere vidit anum. 

 Sed bene, quod paueis licet interitura diebus, 



Succedens sevum prorogat ipsa suum. 

 Collige, virgo, rosas, dum flos novus et nova pubes, 



Et memor esto eevum sic properare tuum. 



In the course of our analysis we shall see what parts of this 

 Idyll were selected for imitation by modern poets, and what 

 parts they omitted. The beautiful imaginative lines (12-22) 

 in which the morning star and the rose are brought beneath 

 the common guardianship of Venus, have, so far as I know, 

 not been seized upon ; although one thought contained in 

 them, that possibly the star may be no less fragrant than the 

 flower, is very modern in its fancy. But first it will be well 

 to call attention to the fact that, while Catullus used the 

 flower of his metaphor only as a symbol of virginity, Ausonius 

 enters into communion with the rose herself as a living creature. 

 For him the flower is no mere emblem. The reflections upon 

 human life which it suggests are only brought forward at the 

 conclusion of his poem, which, in its main structure, is 

 a studied picture of external objects lovingly observed. 

 Another point should be noticed. His sympathy with the 

 short bloom-time of the rose makes him draw from nature 

 pathos which he afterwards applies to man. Hitherto, in 

 classic literature, the rose had been a symbol of love and 

 gladness, celebrated as the ornament of Aphrodite, the pledge 

 of passion, and the chief decoration of life's banquet. In all 

 the authors who praised the rose, from Sappho to the false 

 Anacreon and Philostratus, I remember none who dwelt with 

 insistence on its brevity of beauty. Writing even of dead 

 roses, the anonymous poet of the Anacreontics thinks of their 

 perfume. 



Xapiev f>68(i>v Se yrjpas 



