FLORAL CEREMONIES. 
C7 
Of every guest j that each, as he did please, 
Alight fancy -fit his brows, silk-pillowed at his 
ease,” 
Keats. 
Horace, it seems, could not sit down to his 
bachelor’s glass of wine without his garland. 
This lively little ode occurs at the conclusion 
of his first book ; — 
“ I tell thee, boy, that I detest 
The grandeur of a Persian feast, 
Not for me the Linden’s rind 
Shall the flowery chaplet bind. 
Then search not where the curious rose 
Beyond his season loitering grows ; 
But beneath the mantling vine, 
While I qualf the flowing wine, 
The myrtle’s wreath shall crown our brows, 
While you shall wait and I carouse.” 
Translated by Francis. 
“ The allusion to Persia in this ode,” says 
Phillips, “ confirms our idea, that the taste 
for flowers came to Rome from the East ; 
garlands were suspended at the gates or in 
the temples, where feasts or solemn rejoicings 
were held, and at all places where public joy 
