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 Cornell University Library 
 PA 6395.Z5D28 
 
 Odes of Horace 
 
 3 1924 026 490 767 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026490767 
 
THE 
 
 ODES OF HORACE 
 
 BOOKS I AND II 
 
 DEAZELEY 
 
HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY 
 
THE 
 
 ODES OF HORACE 
 
 BOOKS I AND II 
 
 ©one info ^n^He^ ©etree 
 
 / f N 
 
 WITH 
 
 ANDROMEDA, ARIADNE, and JASON 
 
 J. HOWARD DEAZELEY, M.A. 
 
 MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD 
 
 Ronton 
 HENRY FROWDE 
 
 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE 
 AMEN CORNER, E.G. 
 
 1894 
 
A.i ^71^(0 
 
 . 
 
THE 
 
 ODES OF HORACE 
 
 BOOK I. 
 ODE I. 
 
 « 
 
 To Maecenas. 
 
 Maecenas, son of sires who wore a crown, 
 At once my shelter and my sweet renown : 
 Some joy to gather in the chariot-course 
 Olympic dust, and goal-mark "grazed by force 
 Of fiery wheels and palna of wondrous worth 
 Uplift them high as gods who rule the earth; 
 So joys another, if the fickle crowd 
 With threefold honours strive to make him proud ; 
 And so a third, who in his gamer stores 
 The sweepings of the Libyan threshing-floors. 
 The man who loves to hoe his father's field 
 For wealth of Attalus would never yield 
 
2 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 His lot, a craven mariner to be ^ 
 
 And cleave in Cyprian bark Myrtoan sea. 
 
 The Soutk "Wind battling witli Icarian waves 
 
 The trader dreads and restfiil landscape craves 
 
 That rings his township; soon his shattered fleet 
 
 Refits he, poverty untaught to meet. 
 
 One man at least the wine of Massic brand 
 
 Age-mellowed scorns not, nor to steal a strand 
 
 From warp of daily toil, 'neath arbute's shade, 
 
 Or by some hallowed stream's calm cradle laid. 
 
 To many camps bring joy, and trumpet's blare 
 
 With clarion blent, and wars too rich in care 
 
 For mothers. Tarries in the freezing air 
 
 The hunter heedless of his help-mate fair, 
 
 If doe is sighted by a trusty hound, 
 
 If boar has burst the taper mesh that bound. 
 
 Me ivy, guerdon of the poet's brow, 
 
 To heaven exalts ; and I am severed now 
 
 From common crowd by coolness of the grove 
 
 Where Nymphs with Satyrs gaily dancing rove. 
 
 If neither doth Euterpe hush her flute 
 
 Nor Polyhymnia fail" to tune her lute. 
 
 Midst lyric bards if you shall give me place, 
 
 My lofty head will strike to starry space. 
 
 .y 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 3 
 
 ODE II. 
 
 To Augustus Caesar. 
 
 Snow on the earth enough now hath sent the Sire, 
 Snow and fell hail enough, and, with hand of fire 
 Scathing the shrines that were once the gods' desire, 
 
 Scared he the town ; 
 
 Scared he the nations too, lest again should rise 
 Dread scenes of Pyrrha's age viewed with tearfiil 
 
 eyes. 
 When Proteus drove his herd where from lofty skies 
 
 Mountains look down ; 
 
 While all the race of fish in the elm-tops rest 
 Where doves in other time made their well-known 
 
 nest, 
 Does too, as spread the floods, sore affrighted breast 
 
 Watery plain. 
 
 Saw we in tawny tide Tiber rush and loar, 
 Backward his billows flung from the Tuscan shore, 
 Halls of a king to wreck and to tumble o'er 
 
 Vesta's own fane. 
 
 Vengeance for Ilia's tears — sighs at length can 
 
 move — 
 Boasts he that thus he seeks, and inflamed to rove 
 O'er his left bank he strays, in despite of Jove, 
 
 Husband too true". 
 
 B 2 
 
4 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Youths shall of brethren hear whetting sharp their 
 
 steel 
 That to the Persians fell death would better deal, 
 Youths shall of battle hear, parents' sins who feel 
 
 Dwindled to few. 
 
 Which of the gods above shall the people call 
 In to our aid lest our shaken Empire fall? 
 By what entreaty shall the holy maids enthral 
 
 Vesta's deaf ears ? 
 
 "Who by behest of Jove sin will purge away ? 
 
 Come now Apollo, long looked for, come we pray, 
 
 Mist-veiled the gleamings that from thy shoulders 
 
 play, 
 
 Seer thou of seers ; 
 
 Or if 'tis thine to choose, queen of Eryx' isle. 
 While Mirth and Cupid flit gaily round thy smile ; 
 Or if thou, Founder, wilt on thy sons the while 
 
 Mercy bestow. 
 
 Sated at length, alas! with too weary game. 
 Thou who hast joy in bright helms and war's acclaim, 
 Joy where the gaze of Moor set by blood aflame 
 
 Gloats on the foe. 
 
 Or if thou wouldst adopt mien of mortal's child. 
 Changing thy presence, winged son of Maia mild, 
 Caesar's avenger thus brooking to be styled 
 
 'Mong men below: 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 5 
 
 Late mayst thou journey back heavenward, and long 
 Mayst thou abide content 'mid the Roman throng, 
 Nor by our sins estranged let some breeze too 
 strong , 
 
 Waft thee away. 
 
 Here mayst thou rather love triumphs' great reward, 
 Here to be known as our father and our lord. 
 Suffer not thou the Mede lightly to maraud, 
 
 Caesar, our stay. 
 
 ODE III. 
 
 To the ship in which Virgil was sailing to 
 Athens. 
 
 Thus Helen's brethren, twin-stars bright, 
 The queen with sway of Cyprus blest, 
 
 The winds' own father guide thee right, 
 All others prisoned save the "West, 
 
 ship, that holdest in thy charge 
 
 My Virgil, land him sound and whole, 
 
 1 pray thee, on the Attic marge, 
 And save th@ talf of my poor soul. 
 
 Stout oak and braaen corselets three 
 Encased his breast, whoever first 
 
 His frail bark launched on savage sea, 
 Nor dreaded Afric's headlong burst 
 
 
 V 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE, 
 
 To wrestle with his Northern foes, 
 
 Nor Hyads, nor the South Wind's rage, 
 
 Than whom no greater Hadria knows 
 Its waves to stir or to assuage. 
 
 What guise of death could make him quail 
 
 Who saw the monsters of the deep 
 With eyes unmoved, who marked the gale 
 
 Break on Ceraunia's cursed steep ? 
 In vain did Heaven's wisdom part 
 
 With Ocean's barrier shore from shore, 
 If in its despite vessels dart 
 
 To leap forbidden waters o'er. 
 
 Bold to accomplish any deed 
 
 Men rush through sin to gain desire, 
 Prometheus bold with crafty greed 
 
 Among the nations brought down fire. 
 And, fire thus pilfered from on high, 
 
 Declina with ghastly fevers wed 
 Came brooding, and then swiftly nigh 
 
 Drew what was once Death's far-off tread. 
 
 The airy void on wings denied 
 
 To man did Daedalus essay, 
 And Hercules in labour tried 
 
 Through Acheron's dungeons burst a way. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Nought is too hard in mortal eyes ; 
 
 At heav'a itself our folly aims, 
 And Jove, through guilt which we devise, 
 
 StiU guards for us his wrathful flames. 
 
 ODE IV. 
 To L. 
 
 Shaep winter yields' to Zephyrs and the welcome 
 change of spring. 
 And the thirsty keels are drawn down from the 
 shore : 
 And the cattle leave their stalls and the plough- 
 man leaves his fire, 
 And no longer now the meads with rime are hoar. 
 
 Now Venus leads the dances, while the moon shines 
 
 overhead, 
 
 And the Nymphs and iS-races foot it turn by turn, 
 
 In beauty linked, and Vulcan with the light upon 
 
 his face 
 
 Makes the Cyclops' mighty forges glow and bum. 
 
 Now 'tis right with myrtle green glossy tresses to 
 
 entwine, 
 
 Or with blossoms that unfettered fields renew. 
 
 Now 'tis right in shady grove to let Faunus' 
 
 victim bleed. 
 
 Whether lamb or kid he chooses as his due. 
 
8 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Ghastly Death with equal tread knocks at doors of 
 pauper huts, 
 Happy Sestius, and where princes hold their 
 state ; 
 Life's short span forbids the birth of an over- 
 reaching hope. 
 Soon the shades of stoiy and the night of fate 
 
 And phantom home of Pluto will be on you ; whither 
 
 gone, 
 
 You will dice not for the lordship of the wine; 
 
 And if Lycidas be fair you will little reck or care, 
 
 Though in maiden's eyes the lovelight soon will 
 
 shine. 
 
 ODE V. 
 
 To Pyrrha. 
 
 What slender youth 'mid many^ rose, 
 From whom a stream of fragrance flows, 
 In cool grot, Fjvrha,, wooes thee? 
 
 For whom dost, twine thy -golden hair 
 
 So trimly artless? Broken troth 
 He oft will mourn 'and gods grown wroth, 
 And waves 'neath tempests curling 
 He'll view aghast in his despair. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Who now, bewitched by golden wiles 
 And bent on hope of unshared smiles 
 For ever, fickle breezes 
 
 Suspects not. Hapless they will be 
 
 On whom thy glamour untried glows. 
 Yon temple's votive tablet shows 
 That I with dripping raiment 
 
 Have dowered the god who rules the sea. 
 
 ODE VI. 
 
 To Agrippa. 
 
 Theough Varius, songster of Homeric strain, 
 The praise of thee and of thy battles' gain 
 Shall echo, how by land and on the main 
 Thy braves wrought wonders. 
 
 Not mine such deeds to sing, not mine to limn 
 The cruel house of Pelops, or to skim 
 With shrewd Ulysses seaward, or to hymn 
 Achilles' thunders. 
 
 Too lowly I for this — nay, very shame 
 Forbids me and my Muse's peaceful name, 
 Lest peerless Caesar's praises I should maim, 
 
 Or thine by blunders. 
 <b c 
 
lO THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Who well hath Mars, in iron mail arrayed, 
 Or Marion, black with Trojan dust, portrayed? 
 Or Diomede who learned by Pallas' aid 
 To match immortals ? 
 
 I sing of banquets and of maidens' spite 
 When they with sharp nails show their suitors fight. 
 Nor far, be fancy free or love mood light, 
 I pass my portals. 
 
 ODE VII. 
 To L. Munatius Plancus. 
 
 Let others praise fair Rhodes or Mitylene, 
 
 Ephesus or Corinth with its double sea, 
 Or Bacchus' Thebes, or Delphi of Apollo, 
 
 Or the lovely vale that lies in Thessaly. 
 Their only work it is to some to sing of 
 
 Maiden Pallas' city in unending strain. 
 That olive gathered an3rwhence may crown them. 
 
 Not a few will tell for Juno's greater gain 
 Of Argos, nurse of steeds, and rich Mycenae. 
 
 As for me, not Lacedaemon's hardy worth 
 So charms me, or the tilths of fat Larissa, 
 
 As Albuna's home, whose echoes have their birth 
 By waterfall and orchard groves of Tibur, 
 
 Where the restless streams their moisture yield 
 to earth. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. ir 
 
 A Southern gale dark clouds will often scatter, 
 
 Blowing fair, nor does it always bring forth rain ; 
 Gain wisdona thus, my Plancus, and remember 
 
 Mellow wine will drown life's labour and its pain, 
 If tied thou art to camps aglow with standards. 
 
 Or if Tibur holds thee bowered in thickest shade. 
 From Salamis and sire when he was fleeing. 
 
 While the wine-drops down his dripping forehead 
 strayed, 
 'Tis told that Teucer bound a poplar chaplet 
 
 SiOund his brows, as to his mournful friends he 
 said : — 
 ' Where Fortune kinder than a father takes us, 
 
 Comrades mine and boon companions, we wiU go : 
 Hope on while Teucer leads and Teucer guides you, 
 
 For Apollo's certain promises did show 
 A Salamis elsewhere to set men doubting. 
 
 Spirits stout that oft have suffered worse with me, 
 The cup drain deep to-night and banish trouble, 
 
 With the dawn again we track the. boundless sea.' 
 
 ODE VIII. 
 To Lydia. 
 
 Sat, by all the gods I pray thee, Lydia, 
 
 Why is Sybaris through love of thee undone ? 
 
 Wherefore should he hate the open playground 
 Where he once so stoutly braved the dust and sun ? 
 c 2 
 
12 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Why no more amid tlie youths his compeers 
 In the trappings of a soldier doth he ride ? 
 
 Why doth bit curb not his Gallic charger? 
 
 Wherefore shrinks he from the Tiber's tawny tide ? 
 
 Why more warily than blood of adder 
 
 Shuns he now the touch of athlete's olive-oil ? 
 
 Why no quoit or spear the goal o'erflying 
 Hurls his arm that once was black with manly toil ? 
 
 Why hides he like the son of sea-bom Thetis 
 When the tearful doom of Troy was drawing nigh, 
 
 Lest a man's attire should sweep him onward 
 Into slaughter and the Lycian chivalry? 
 
 ODE IX. 
 
 To Thaliarchus. 
 
 You see how crowned aloft with spotless snow 
 Soracte stands, and how their load below 
 
 The burdened trees are groaning, 
 How sharp frost's grasp is on the river's flow. 
 
 Away with cold, pile up the hearth with wood, 
 Its due unstinted, and in lavish mood 
 
 Bring wine, my Thaliarchus, 
 That hath in Sabine jar for four years stood. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 13 
 
 Then leave the rest to heaven : when to sleep 
 It lays the storm-gusts battling with the deep, 
 
 No more need cypress tremble 
 Or hoary ash be tost by tempest's sweep. 
 
 Forbear to wonder what shall be to-morrow, 
 Whatever Fate lends yours the gain to borrow, 
 
 And while your life's green summer 
 Still lacks grey hairs and age's peevish sorrow, 
 
 Scorn not the youthful joys of love and dance. 
 When evening falls let gentle sigh entrance 
 
 Full oft at hour of trysting, 
 In playing-field and ring try oft your chance. 
 
 Now let the tuneful laugh betray the maid 
 Who lurks where dim nook lends its deepest shade. 
 
 From arm now snatch love's token 
 Or finger that resists but iU the raid. 
 
 ODE X. 
 
 To Mercury. 
 
 Geandson of Atlas, lord of ready speech, 
 Who rugged ways of new-made men didst reach 
 And mould with skill of song and gracefial rule 
 Of wrestling-school, 
 
14 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Ambassador of gods and Jove the great, 
 I'll hymn thy praise who didst the lyre create, 
 Whose merry thieving hides in mischief sly 
 "What takes thine eye. 
 
 "When once thy boyish heart he vainly stirred 
 With threat'ning voice unless his stolen herd 
 Thou shouldst restore, of quiver too beguiled 
 Apollo smiled. 
 
 In thee a guide did wealthy Priam find 
 What time he left the walls of Troy behind, 
 And slipt the proud Atrides, watchfires' glow 
 And camp of foe. 
 
 'Tis thine pure souls their happy homes to show ; 
 Thy golden wand constrains the ghostly row; 
 In thee above, below, the gods are blest 
 
 With welcome guest. 
 
 ODE XI. 
 To Leuconoe. 
 
 Ask not thou, 'tis lore unholy, what the length to 
 
 me or thee 
 That of life the gods have given, nor essay, 
 
 Leuconoe, 
 Babylonish calculations : best to bear whate'er befall. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 15 
 
 Whether Jove gives other winters, whether this 
 
 be last of all 
 "Which is breaking on the angry reefs the strength 
 
 of Tuscan tide, 
 Show thy wisdom, strain thy vintage, and curtail 
 
 a hope too wide 
 For a life-span all too narrow. Jealous time has 
 
 slipt away 
 While we talk. Trust not the morrow, gather 
 
 what thou canst to-day. 
 
 ODE XII. 
 
 To Augustus. 
 
 What man or hero. Olio, on thy lute 
 Dost choose to hymn, or on the shriU-voiced flute ? 
 What god ? whose name shall sportive echoes bruit 
 Once and again 
 
 In gloomy dusk of Heliconian glade, 
 On Pindus' heights, in Haemus' chilling shade? 
 Whence, led by Orpheus, forests wildly strayed 
 Charmed by his strain : 
 
 To stay the river's headlong flight he brings 
 His mothers skill, and clips the tempest's wings, 
 And, spell-bound hearers of his tuneful strings. 
 Draws the oaks down. 
 
l6 THE ODES OF HORACE 
 
 What sooner than the Father's wonted praise 
 Shall claim my song, who gods and mortal ways, 
 And sea and land and earthly seasons sways, 
 Smile they or frown? 
 
 Whence than himself is sprung no greater race. 
 Nor claimeth any like or second place. 
 And yet the next to him in honour's grace 
 Pallas hath won. 
 
 In battle dauntless, never will I slight 
 Thee, Liber, Maid who dost with feU beasts fight, 
 Nor thee, nor Phoebus' shaft whose deadly flight 
 All things would shun. 
 
 Alcides too I'll sing, and Leda's twins, 
 With steeds the one, renown the other wins 
 With boxing; when for sailor's eye begins 
 Their star to shine, 
 
 Adown the cliff flows back the angry spray. 
 The winds are lulled, the cloud-wrack melts away. 
 And — 'tis their will — ^the bUlows in the bay 
 Peaceful recline. 
 
 Shall Eomulus come next, or shall my strain 
 Bring back Pompilius and his peaceful reign 
 And Tarquin's fasces proud and Cato's gain, 
 
 Where death was glory? 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 17 
 
 The great-souled PauUus, who of life made light 
 When Carthaginian conquered in the fight, 
 And Eegulus and Soaurus are the bright 
 Themes of my story. 
 
 Fabricius and Curius wild of hair, 
 Camillus too, did want that pincheth bear 
 On farm ancestral fed with humble fare, 
 Heroes in war. 
 
 As tree that gathers unseen growth, is spread 
 Marcellus' fame ; o'er all a glow is shed 
 From Julian planet, as the moon o'erhead 
 Paleth each star. 
 
 Saturn's son, of mortal men the sire 
 And great protector, thee the fates desire 
 To guard great Caesar: thine the kingship dire 
 "With him as second. 
 
 Hej whether Parthians threat'ning harm to Rome 
 Have owned his triumph o'er their conquered home, 
 Or if with dwellers by the Eastern foam 
 Of Ind he reckoned. 
 
 O'er all but thee shall spread his just rule wide; 
 Thy massive car shall shake Olympus' side, 
 Tjiy bolts shall fall where groves with sin deep-dyed 
 To vengeance beckoned. 
 
l8 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XIII. 
 To Lydia. 
 
 "When of Telephus thou praisest 
 Rosy neck and arms of snow, 
 
 Then, alas ! my passion, Lydia, 
 Swells in overwhelming flow. 
 
 Then nor soul nor blood is steady, 
 And "the tear that wets my cheek 
 
 Stealthily, but shows the ceaseless 
 Fires within that laake me weak. 
 
 Bums my heart if thy fair shoulders 
 Strife unseemly stains with wine. 
 
 Or if thy young lover's frenzy 
 Scars thy lip with lasting line. 
 
 Never, if thou wilt believe me. 
 Look to him for love that lives 
 
 Who would wound thy kisses essenced 
 With the nectar Venus gives. 
 
 Blessed thrice and more the lovers 
 Bound by an unbroken tie," 
 
 Whom no evil strife shall sever 
 Till the day that sees them die. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 19 
 
 ODE XIV. 
 
 To the Commonwealth. 
 
 SHIP of state, fresh waves -will once more take 
 Thee out to sea. What art thou doing? bravely 
 make 
 The harbour. Art not thou aware 
 How stript of oars thy sides are bare, 
 
 And how thy yard-arms groan, and how thy mast 
 Is wounded by the South "Wind's evil blast? 
 
 Thy keel ungirded scarce can keep 
 
 At bay the too despotic deep. 
 
 Thy sails are rent, nor when thy woes befall. 
 Hast thou gods left on whom again to caU. 
 Although thou art a Pontic pine, 
 A child of noblest woodland line, 
 
 The race and name thou boastest are but dust; 
 
 In painted stems no sailor puts his trust. 
 Lest plaything for the idle air 
 Thou vet shouldst be, do thou beware. 
 
 thou whouate didst cause me care and dread, 
 Whose fate i^ still with yearning bodings wed, 
 I pray thae shun the Oyclads' sheen 
 And waves\that ebb and flow between. 
 D 2 
 
20 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XV. 
 The prophecy of Nereus totiching the doom of Troy. 
 
 When the shepherd prince was taking in his ships 
 
 across the sea, 
 Trojan ships, his hostess Helen, for a traitor guest 
 
 was he. 
 
 In a calm unwelcome Nereus lulled the rushing 
 
 of the gale 
 
 Telling doom's tale : 
 
 ' With an evil omen on thee to thy home thou lead'st 
 
 away 
 Her whom Greece shall seek back from thee with 
 
 her swordmen's thick array 
 Sworn to break for thee thy wedlock and to tumble 
 
 shatter'd down 
 
 Priam's old crown. 
 
 'Woe is me, for men and chargers what incessant 
 toil and sweat. 
 
 What a storm of death for Trojan race in move- 
 ment thou dost set! 
 
 For her car and fary even now with shield and 
 helm she wears 
 
 Pallas prepares. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE, 21 
 
 ' And in vain wilt thou, relying upon Venus' guardian 
 arm, 
 
 Fiercely sit and comb thy love-locks, and thy 
 womankind to charm 
 
 Strike thy dainty minstrel's measures on the peace- 
 ful lyre ; in vain 
 
 Shalt thou remain 
 
 ' In thy chamber shunning spear-points and the shafts 
 
 of Cretan reed 
 And the battle-cry of Ajax swift to make the 
 
 runner bleed; 
 
 For the curls of the betrayer shall at last be stained 
 
 and thrust 
 
 Down to the dust. 
 
 ' Dost thou not behold Laertes' son, the ruin of thy 
 
 race, 
 And the sage of Pylos, Nestor ? On thee speeds 
 
 with dauntless face 
 Prince of Salamis, brave Teucer joined with Sthe- 
 
 nelus, whose skill 
 
 War's posts to fill 
 
 ' Would prove him, should the need arise o'er steeds 
 
 his sway to show. 
 As a charioteer no laggard. Merion also shalt thou 
 
 know. 
 
22 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Thee the ruthless son of Tydeus, than his sire of 
 
 stouter mind, 
 
 Eagea to find ; 
 
 'And from him, as in some valley when a wolf is 
 
 sighted nigh 
 All unmindflil of the pasture flies the stag, so thou 
 
 shalt fly 
 With a craven's deep-drawn pantings, though thy 
 
 promise to thy queen 
 
 Other had been. 
 
 ' Though the anger and resentment of AchiUes and 
 
 his fleet 
 Makes the day to lag when Ilion and its wives 
 
 their doom will meet, 
 
 After flight of fated winters shall Achaean fires 
 
 destroy 
 
 Roof-trees of Troy.' 
 
 ODE XVI. 
 A lover's recantation. 
 
 DAUGHTEE fairer than a mother fair. 
 
 To lines that bring but blame and shame 
 Come set a limit, let the flame 
 
 Or Hadria's waters end the sting they bear. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 23 
 
 Not Cybele or god of Pythos' shrine 
 
 When he his trembling priesthood shakes, 
 Nor Oorybant who shrilly makes 
 
 His timbrel echo, nor the god of wine, 
 
 Can stir like wrath, that neither Noric blade 
 Nor wreck-strown sea nor savage fire, 
 Nor Jove himself, when in his ire 
 
 He rushes thtind'ring on, can make afraid. 
 
 Prometheus, bound to add to primal clay 
 Some morsel drawn from every source. 
 Took too the lion's frenzied force 
 
 To swell our passion, so the legends say. 
 
 'Twas anger laid Thyestes sorely low. 
 And to this cause the ramparts tall 
 Of towns can trace their final fall, 
 
 When o'er the site of ruined walls the foe 
 
 Set mark of ploughshare in the flush of pride. 
 Be calm of mind ; when youth was sweet 
 I too, consumed by passion's heat, 
 
 The burning rush of swift iambics tried 
 
 In madness. Now I seek for hours of pain 
 To win back pleasure, an thou wilt ; 
 Since I recant my charge of guilt. 
 
 Be friends and give me back thy heart again. 
 
24 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XVII. 
 
 To Tyndaris. 
 
 Lycaean heights when Faunus swift forsakes, 
 For fair Lucretilis he often makes ; 
 There from my kids he wards the summer heat, 
 And shields them when the rainy tempests beat. 
 My she-goats scatheless wander through the glade, 
 A strong mate's consorts, and in shelter'd shade 
 For lurking thyme and arbute make their quest, 
 By dread of green-scaled serpents undistrest. 
 Their young the wolves of Mars need never heed 
 When thou, my Tyndaris, with tuneful reed 
 Dost make the glens and gleaming rocks resound 
 Where Ustica stoops down with lowly ground. 
 The gods watch o'er me, to the gods are dear 
 My righteousness and talent. Here the cheer 
 And kindly wealth of rustic bounties teem 
 Where Plenty's horn for thee shall brim and stream. 
 Here in some wooded vale the Dogstar's blaze 
 Thou shalt escape, and hjrmn with Teian lays 
 The sea-nymphs Circe and Penelope, 
 Each striving queen of one man's heart to be. 
 Here cups of harmless Lesbian thou shalt drain 
 Beneath the shade ; nor war of purpose vain 
 Shall Semele's Thyoneus blindly wage 
 With Mars, nor shameless C!3rrus' jealous rage 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 25 
 
 Shall make thee, foe ill-matcli'd, in terror stand 
 Lest on thee he should lay his reckless hand 
 And, guiltless though it be, thy raiment tear 
 And garland clinging closely to thy hair. 
 
 ODE XVIII. 
 To Quintilius Varus. 
 
 Plant no tree for choice, my Varus, sooner than 
 
 the sacred vine 
 In the kindly lands of Tibur where GatiUus' ramparts 
 
 shine. 
 On the sober every hardship do the gods of heaven 
 
 lay; 
 From the sober sorrow wanders not, nor takes its 
 
 sting away. 
 Who when wine is in of poverty would croak or 
 
 war's alarms? 
 Who of Bacchus would not rather sing, of Venus 
 
 and her charms? 
 But that none should pass the limit set to Liber's 
 
 gift divine 
 Warns us feud of Lapithae with Centaurs fought 
 
 out over wine. 
 Warns us Bacchus who in anger on Sithonians 
 
 lays his hand 
 When the boundary 'twixt right and wrong they 
 
 fix, a greedy band, 
 t = 
 
26 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 By the standard of lust's measure. Never, Bassareus 
 
 the fair, 
 Will I stir thee when reluctant, or drag forth to 
 
 open air 
 Rites of thine in forests hidden. Berecynthian horn 
 
 restrain 
 And the timbrel's savage frenzy, blindly follow in 
 
 whose train 
 Love of self and proud Ambition rearing high its 
 
 empty head, 
 And the Faith than crystal clearer that a secret 
 
 longs to spread. 
 
 OBE XIX. 
 On Glycera. 
 
 The Cupids' ruthless mother 
 And Semele's young son 
 
 And Frolic bid me give back 
 My heart to courtships done. 
 
 For Glycera inflames me, 
 
 More fair than marble's sheen ; 
 Her wanton wiles inflame me. 
 
 Her face with peril seen. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 27 
 
 Full on me Venus rushing 
 
 From Cyprus, sets her ban 
 
 Lest Soyth or flying Parthian 
 Or aught else fill song's span. 
 
 Bring, boys, live turf and vervain, 
 Frankincense bring the while 
 
 And wine, a victim offered 
 
 Will make her coming smile. 
 
 ODE XX. ' 
 
 To Maecenas. 
 
 In goblets poor you'll taste the humble hoard 
 Of Sabine wine which I had sealed and stored 
 In Grrecian jar, when plaudits for you roared. 
 The theatre ringing. 
 
 Beloved knight Maecenas, till the shore 
 Of your forefathers' river backward bore 
 Your praise that sportive echo sang once more 
 From Vatican winging. 
 
 Of Caecuban and grape on which its will 
 Worked Gales' wine-press you shall take your fill : 
 Falemae to my cups and Formian hill 
 
 No flavour are bringing. 
 
 E 2 
 
28 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXI. 
 
 To Diana and Apollo. 
 
 Ye tender maidens, of Diana sing, 
 
 Ye young men, of tlie unshorn Cynthian king 
 
 And of Latona nigh 
 
 Unto the heart of Jupiter most high. 
 
 Girls, sing of her whom streams and trees delight 
 On chilly Algidus' projecting height, 
 
 On Cragus green of hue, 
 
 In woods of Erymanthus dusk to view. 
 
 Boys, laud with equal praises Tempo's vale. 
 And Delos, birthplace of Apollo, hail. 
 
 Whose shoulders never tire 
 
 Of wearing quiver and his brother's lyre.. 
 
 He war that rains with tears, and famine dread. 
 And plague from us and from our princely head. 
 Great Caesar, moved by prayer, 
 To Britons and to Persians far will bear. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 29 
 
 ODE XXII. 
 To Aristius Fuscus. 
 
 The man whose life is upright and no stain of 
 
 guilt pan show 
 Needs not, my Fuscus, Moorish spears, needs not 
 
 a Moorish bow 
 Or quiver filled with a;rrows that are poison'd 
 
 'gainst the foe ; 
 
 If through the Syrtes' burning waste he has to 
 
 make his way, 
 Or where as host the Caucasus an uncouth part 
 
 doth play, r 
 
 Or where Hydaspes laves the ground, the theme 
 
 of many a lay. 
 
 Far from me once in Sabine wood, when of all 
 
 cares set free 
 I wandered on, and wand' ring sang songs of my 
 
 Lalage, 
 My bounds o'erstepping, though unarmed was I, 
 
 a wolf did flee. 
 
 Not Daunia such a brute as that, for aU her war- 
 like band, 
 
 Doth foster where her winter oaks crown far and 
 wide the land. 
 
 Nor breeds the realm where lions thrive on Juba's 
 burning sand. 
 
30 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Come set me down upon tlie plains in ice that 
 slumber bound, 
 
 "Where never breeze to fan a tree with summer's 
 breath is found, 
 
 A region of the world where clouds and frown- 
 ing skies abound; 
 
 Come set me where the Sun-god's car too close by 
 
 many a mile 
 Draws nigh to earth and there to man no home 
 
 allows the while, 
 I'll love my Lalage's sweet talk, my Lalage's 
 
 sweet smile. 
 
 ODE XXIII. 
 To Chloe. 
 
 Feom me like timid fawn you -fly 
 
 That seeks upon the pathless hills 
 Its mother, finding groundless ills 
 
 In wood and breeze that murmurs by. 
 
 For if new come to waving brake 
 
 Spring rustles, or the lizards green 
 Have ihade their way the leaves between. 
 
 Its heart and knees together shake. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 31 
 
 And yet witli tigers cruel stride 
 Or lion's liunt I not to tear: 
 Meet consort for a husband's care, 
 
 Forsake at length thy mother's side. 
 
 ODE XXIV. 
 To Virgil. 
 
 What end to grief for one so dear 
 Can shame set? Eaise thy dirges drear, 
 Melpomene, to whom a clear 
 
 Refrain Jove gave and skill the lute to strike. 
 
 And so an endless sleep doth lie 
 Upon Quintilius. Vainly try 
 Humility and Truth's keen eye 
 And Faith, Right's sister, e'er to find, his like. 
 
 He died by many good men wept: 
 Your cheeks by fastest tears were swept. 
 My Virgil, and, your loan unkept. 
 
 In vain you claim him from the gods again. 
 
 If you the lute more sweetly played 
 Than Orpheus heard by listening glade, 
 No more comes blood to ghostly shade 
 Which Mercury's dread wand doth once constrain 
 
32 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 To join the inarch of ghostly flock 
 For whom no prayer can doom unlock. 
 'Tis hard to bear: but sorrow's shock 
 
 Will time assuage where nought may cancel pain. 
 
 ODE XXV. 
 
 To Lydia. 
 
 MoEE seldom now your window-shutter shakes 
 With blows rained on it by our youthfiil rakes, 
 Whose noise no longer on your slumber breaks ; 
 Your door's to threshold keeping 
 
 Which once upon its hinges moved with ease: 
 For less and less you hear such words as these — 
 'I die with love, the long night slowly flees, 
 Say, Lydia, art sleeping?' 
 
 Grown old, in turn from alleys lone you'U sigh 
 For lovers who will scomfiil pass you by. 
 When Thracian tempest holdeth revel high 
 At moon-change. You are grieving 
 
 Because our merry youths take more delight 
 In lusty ivy and the myrtle bright. 
 And withered leaves to winds that mate their might 
 With winter now are leaving. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 33 
 
 ODE XXVI. 
 
 On 'Aelius Lamia. 
 
 The Muses' friend, all gloom and care 
 I'll give tlie •wanton winds to bear 
 To Cretan sea, nor do I care 
 To whom the cold North's king may bring despair, 
 
 Nor what may Tiridates fright. 
 thou, who lovest fountains bright, 
 Of blooms that bask in sunny light. 
 Weave me a crown to charm my Lamia's sight, 
 
 Pimplea sweet ! No skill of mine 
 Apart from thee can hope to shine, 
 In latest song my friend enshrine 
 With Lesbian quill that honours thee and thine. 
 
 ODE XXVII. 
 
 To his boon-companions. 
 
 With goblets fashioned as a joy of life 
 To fight is Thracian: such wild manners end, 
 And modest Bacchus thus defend 
 From bloody strife. 
 
34 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Between the wine lamp-lit and Median blade 
 Tis strange to think how wide a difference lies. 
 My comrades, rest from godless cries 
 On elbows stayed. 
 
 And would you have me also quaff my part 
 Of rough Falernian? Let Megilla's brother own 
 What deadly shaft hath at him flown 
 With blissfal smart. 
 
 Compliance lingers V nay, I will not drink 
 On other terms. Whatever love may reign, 
 'Tis honest, and meets no disdain, 
 Nor needst thou shrink 
 
 To tell thy flame. Whate'er thy plight may be. 
 Entrust it to safe ears. Oh, hapless wight. 
 Worth nobler love, Charybdis' might 
 Engulfeth thee. 
 
 What witch, what wizard's spells can win surcease 
 Of sorrow, or what god can snap the snare ? 
 Chimaera holds, and steed of air 
 Could scarce release. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 35 
 
 ODE XXVIII. 
 To Archytas. 
 
 Thee, who didst span the ocean and the land, 
 
 Archytas, and the countless sand, 
 Scant dust's hard duress by the Matine shore 
 
 Imprisons now, nor any inore 
 Doth it avail that thou death-doomed didst soar 
 
 In thought round heaven's vaulted floor. 
 In death too Pelops' sire the gods' guest lies, 
 
 Tithonus wafted to the skies 
 And Minos, who was suffered to unfold 
 
 Jove's secrets : Tartarus doth hold 
 Panthoides to'Orcus sent once more. 
 
 Though he took down his shield, and bore 
 To Trojaii times his witness, who at frown 
 
 Of death his nerves and skin laid down 
 And nought beyond, great master in thy view 
 
 To read the truths of nature through. 
 For aU men lies in wait one night of gloom ; 
 
 All once must tread the path of doom. 
 The Fates give some grim gaze of Mars to please ; 
 
 Some death o'ertakes on greedy seas ; 
 Teem fun'ral trains of old and young ; no head 
 
 Hath ruthless Proserpine o'erfled. 
 Me too Orion's friend, fleet Notus, drave 
 
 And drowned beneath lUyrian wave. 
 
 t p 2 
 
36 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 O sailor, grudge not shifting sand to spread 
 
 Upon my graveless bones and head. 
 Thus, should the East Wind vex Hesperia's tide 
 
 "With threat'nings, mayst thou safe abide, — 
 Venusia's woods can suffer— rJove's reward 
 
 Stream on thee, and may Neptune, lord 
 Of pure Tarentum, send thee richest freight. 
 
 Hast thou no care in dealing fate 
 To guiltless sons of thine by working crime ? 
 
 Nay, for thyself in after time 
 May stem requital wait: my prayers will gain 
 
 Their answer ; nought will purge thy stain. 
 Though thou be prest, I ask no long delay; 
 
 Thrice sprinkle dust, then haste away. 
 
 ODE XXIX. 
 
 To Iccius. 
 
 locius, you co-v«t now the Arab's treasure. 
 And seek to mete out war's sharp measure 
 To Saba's kings unconquered yet, 
 And chains you forge on Mede to set. 
 
 What savage maiden, having slain her lover, 
 To be your slave wiU you discover? 
 
 What courtly page with perfumed hair 
 Will chosen be your cup to bear, 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE, 37 
 
 Wto from his father's bow can send a-flying 
 
 His Seric arrows? Cease denying 
 
 That streams may flow up from the plain, 
 And Tiber seek his source again, 
 
 When you, Panaetus' costly tomes forsaking 
 
 And school of Socrates, are taking 
 Instead the armoury of Spain, 
 Your better promise making vain. 
 
 ODE XXX. 
 
 To "Venus. 
 
 Ventts, who in Onidos and in Paphos hold'st 
 
 thy sway. 
 Forsake the Cyprus of thy choice, and speeding 
 
 now away 
 
 Where Glycera invokes thee and the censer's 
 
 odours play, 
 
 Come to her shrine. 
 
 And with thee bring thy boyish son in all his 
 
 burning glow. 
 And Nymphs and G-races with their robes un- 
 
 girdled free to flow. 
 
 And Mercury and Youth who hath delights but 
 
 few to show 
 
 Apart from thine. 
 
38 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXXI. 
 
 To Apollo. 
 
 What boon from Phoebus dotb his bard implore? 
 What gift entreat, in holy dew 
 From goblet pouring vintage new? 
 
 Not rich Sardinia's teeming harvest-store, 
 
 Not herds that bask beneath Calabria's glow, 
 
 Not Indian ivory or gold, 
 
 Not lands the Liris that enfold 
 And feel the gnawing of his silent flow. 
 
 The vine of Cales let them prune whose cares 
 Fate orders so; let merchants please 
 To drain from gold in wealthy ease 
 
 The wines they purchase with their Syrian wares. 
 
 Dear to the gods, since thrice a year or more 
 To wide Atlantic they repair 
 Unscathed. The olive Js my fare, 
 
 The mallow and the endive are my store. 
 
 (* 
 
 Health grant me, Phoebus, to enjoy my lot 
 With mind that sound and whole remains. 
 And brightened by the lyre's sweet strains 
 
 Let age steal on, and stealing bring no blot. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 39 
 
 ODE XXXII. 
 To his lute. 
 
 They ask a song. If aught beneath the shade, 
 To live a year or more, on thee I played 
 In idle mood, with Latin garb arrayed 
 Inspire, lute, my note. 
 
 Thou who wast first by Lesbos' burgess strung: 
 Though fierce in war, yet standing arms among, 
 Or when with rope upon the wet shore flung 
 He moored his battered boat. 
 
 The Muses, Liber, Venus and her care, 
 The clinging boy, he'd hymn with tuneftil air, 
 Of Lycus black of eye and black of hair 
 The beauty he would sing. 
 
 Phoebus' glory, Jove the lord of aU 
 
 Is glad when, on his feasts thy measures fall; 
 
 to my toils, whene'er I duly call, 
 
 Do thou sweet solace bring. 
 
40 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE XXXIII. 
 
 To AlMiis Tibullus. 
 
 Though Glycera be cruel, do not play the sorry wiglit 
 
 Too long, my Albius, nor in verse bewail tby 
 
 piteous plight 
 
 Because a younger lover now outshines thee in 
 
 her sight 
 
 To troth's despite. 
 
 Lycoris, low-browed beauty, feels for Cyrus love's 
 
 hot dart ; 
 And Cyrus after Pholoe the ruthless flings his heart : 
 But sooner to the she-goat will Apulian wolf impart 
 The lover's smart 
 
 Than Pholoe would sin with one low-born of baser 
 
 folk. 
 So seems it good to Venus, whose grim will hath 
 
 often broke 
 
 Ill-ma;ted forms and minds to go beneath her brazen 
 
 yoke 
 
 In cruel joke. 
 
 Me too, although a kinder love was standing in 
 
 my way, 
 
 Did Myrtale imprison in the fetters of her sway, 
 
 A freed slave, fiercer than the sea that each Cala- 
 
 brian bay 
 
 Curves out with spray. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 41 
 
 ODE XXXIV. 
 To himself. 
 A BABE and grudging worsliipper of heaven 
 I strayed, my mind to witless wisdom given, 
 Till now perforce convinced I'm fain 
 To set my sails and journey back again. 
 
 For Jupiter, the flashing of whose sheen 
 Full often glitters gloomy clouds between, 
 Where skies were mistless near and far 
 Drove through his thundering steeds and flying 
 car, 
 
 Till aU the sluggish earth and streams that flowed 
 And wandered, and the Styx and dread abode 
 Of Taenarus and furthest rock 
 Of Atlas on the instant felt the shock. 
 
 'Tis God who darkness into light can throw, 
 Can raise the weak and bring the mighty low; 
 Hence Fortune swooping strikes the crown, 
 And here with whistling wing she sets it down. 
 
 ODE XXXV. 
 To Fortune. 
 
 GODDESS, queen of Antium the fair, 
 The power is thine to raise from low estate 
 The lot of man, and with the wheel of fate 
 
 To turn a triumph's pride to death's despair. 
 
42 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 To thee poor husbandmen with anxious care, 
 To thee, as mistress of the ocean plain, 
 Do mariners who scour Carpathian main 
 
 In Eastern barks address the suitor's prayer. 
 
 Of thee rough Dacia, Scythia's roaming band, 
 And towns and nations, Latium prone to scorn, 
 And mothers of whom savage kings are bom, 
 
 And tyrants purple-clad in terror stand, 
 
 Lest thou with spuming foot shouldst overthrow 
 The pillars of the state, and lest the crowd 
 In idle loiterers' ears should cry aloud 
 
 ' To arms 1 to arms ! ' and lay an Empire low. 
 
 Necessity the ruthless plants her tread 
 
 Before thee, clutching in her brazen grasp 
 Her nails and wedges, while the rigid clasp 
 
 Of clamp is with her and the molten lead. 
 
 Thee Hope and Faith in robe of white attend, 
 Too seldom seen, nor shrink thy road to take 
 Whene'er in altered garb thou dost forsake 
 
 The princely halls where once thou wast a friend. 
 
 But faithless crowds and paramours forsworn 
 Retreating go, and with the latest lees 
 Of emptied casks such traitor friends as these 
 
 Depart and leave the burden to be borne. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 43 
 
 Our Caesar on his journey mayst thou save. 
 Against remotest Britons when he goes, 
 And save our youth, a dread to Eastern foes 
 
 And to the dwellers by the Eed Sea's wave. 
 
 Alas ! the shame of guilt is on the land 
 
 For brothers' scars. Where have we turned aside 
 From any sin? "What crime is left untried? 
 
 Our youths from what offence have held their hand ? 
 
 Through fear of heaven what altars have they spared ? 
 would that now upon an anvil new 
 Our blunted weapons thou wouldst fashion true 
 
 Against Arabian foemen to be bared. 
 
 ODE XXXVI. 
 In Jionour of Plotius Numida. 
 
 With the odours of incense, the music of lyre, 
 
 And the blood of a calf which is due, 
 To the gods we pay court that our Numida guard 
 
 Who, his journey from Spain's end safe through. 
 On companions beloved bestows many a kiss; 
 
 But to none than to Lamia sweet 
 Gives he more, being mindful of boyhood's old 
 times 
 
 When they twain sat at one master's feet 
 And together the garment of manhood assumed. 
 
 Let this day of bliss have its white stone, 
 G 2- 
 
44 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Let the beakers unstinted be ready to hand, 
 
 Let our feet to no weariness own 
 Of the Salian dance, nor let Damalis' thirst 
 
 Conquer Bassus in draught-draining puQ; 
 Let the banquet with rose and frail lily be graced 
 
 And with parsley of life that is full. 
 There his eyes that are melting with love will 
 each guest 
 
 Be directing to Damalis' charms. 
 But like ivy will Damalis cling and decline 
 
 To be torn from her new lover's arms. 
 
 ODE XXXVII. 
 
 To his comrades. 
 
 Now the hour is ripe for revel ; now the foot upon 
 
 the floor 
 Should be treading mazy measures ; now 'tis time, 
 
 my friends, and more 
 That upon the gods' high table we should Salic 
 
 dainties pour. 
 
 For the Caecuban aforetime from its cells of ancient 
 
 date 
 It was sin to take for drinking, while a queen with 
 
 frenzied fate 
 Was preparing dire destruction for our citadel and 
 
 state, 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 45 
 
 Where around her stood a loathly band on whom 
 
 foul sickness preyed. 
 She was wild enough for any hope, by Fortune's 
 
 sweet wine made 
 Merest sport of drunken folly: but her madness 
 
 was allayed 
 
 When by flame was left uninjured scarce a ship of 
 all her fleet, 
 
 And her mind with wine distracted saw the terrors 
 of defeat; 
 
 WhUe she fled and Caesar followed with his oars- 
 men's rapid beat, 
 
 As the falcon presses onward in the timid stock- 
 dove's train, 
 
 As the hare the hunter chases on Haemonia's snowy 
 plain, 
 
 That the doomfiil source of ruin he might capture 
 and enchain: 
 
 But she purposed by a nobler than the common 
 death to di?, 
 
 Nor at sabre did she tremble with a woman's tear- 
 ful eye, 
 
 Nor esoapie on shipboard sought she where the hidden 
 havens Ue. 
 
46 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 She had heart to view the ruin of her throne with 
 
 cloudless look, 
 And the wrath of savage serpents to her fearless 
 
 hands she took 
 In her veins their bane to gather : far too haughty 
 
 she to brook, 
 
 "While the way of death was open and resolve was 
 
 fiercely strong, 
 That degraded she should pleasure all the wild 
 
 Liburnian throng, 
 And be led to grace their triumph as a gazing- 
 
 stook along. 
 
 ODE xxxviri. 
 
 To Ms page. 
 
 I HATE, my lad, the Persians' vain display, 
 I love not chaplets bound with linden stay; 
 Forbear to seek where rose, in late delay, 
 May linger stiU. 
 
 Thy busy hand for me nought else need twine 
 With simple myrtle : meet, my page, as thine 
 And mine is myrtle, when 'neath mantling vine 
 I quaff my fill. 
 
>- 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 ODE I. 
 
 To Asinius Pollio. 
 
 The civil strife bom in Metellus' times, 
 The springs of war, its phases and its crimes 
 You handle, all the tricks of Fate, 
 The deadly -friendships of the great, 
 
 And arms whose bloodstains are not purged as yet, 
 A work where chance and risk your path beset ; 
 O'er treach'rous ashes you must go, 
 Where hidden fires still lurk below. 
 
 Let Tragedy's grave Muse forsake the stage 
 
 For one short while: and when your storied page 
 
 Its record ends, the buskin Greek 
 
 In high employ you shall reseek. 
 
 Takes Senate counsel? Stands accused dismayed? 
 
 Thou, Pollio, art to each a stalwart aid, 
 On whom Dalmatic triumph's -bays 
 Bestowed the meed of endless praise. 
 
48 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Already with tlie bugle's threat'ning bray 
 You stun our ears; e'en now tlie trumpets play; 
 E'en now do flashing arms affright 
 The fljdng steeds and horsemen's sight. 
 
 E'en now I hear the mighty chiefs acclaim 
 Begrimed with smirch of dust that brings no shame, 
 
 Where worlds are vanquished far and wide, 
 
 Except the rage of Cato's pride. 
 
 Then Juno and the gods, whose might was weak 
 To save their Africans and vengeance wreak, 
 
 The sons of those who conquered made 
 
 An off'ring to Jugurtha's shade. 
 
 "What plains from Latin blood draw no new life 
 Whose graves bear witness to our godless strife, 
 And, heard by Medes in sound of woe, 
 The doom that laid Hesperia low? 
 
 Was any flood or any river free 
 
 Prom scenes of dolefiil war? was any sea 
 
 Clear from the crimson of our gore? 
 
 Unstained by blood was any shore ? 
 
 But lest, my. sportive Muse, you quit the vein 
 Of mirth for Cean dirge's dismal strain, 
 With me beneath some lovers' cave 
 Strike out in song a gayer stave. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 49 
 
 ODE II. 
 
 To C. Sallustius Crispus. 
 
 Hidden silver has no glow 
 In the churlisli earth below; 
 Shines it, SaUust, riches' foe, 
 
 In modest spending. 
 
 Procnleius' well-known care 
 For his brethren adds a share 
 To a life that Fame wiU bear 
 
 In flight unending. 
 
 G-ives greed checked a wider sway 
 Than if Libya far away 
 Gades joins and both obey 
 
 Your sole direction : 
 
 Self-indulgent dropsy grows. 
 Thirst unslaked, unless it close 
 Mischiefs source, -then weakness goes 
 And pale complexion. 
 
 Though restored to Cyrus' throne 
 Sits Phraates, "Worth alone 
 Bliss in him declines to own. 
 And so, mistaken 
 
 H 
 
50 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Terms unteacliing men, secure 
 Crowns on those and laurels sure 
 She bestows who treasures' lure 
 Behold unshaken. 
 
 ODE III. 
 To Dellius. 
 
 "When life is hard, your soul possess 
 
 In cahii serene ; when .times are fair, 
 Eefrain from triumph's haughty air, 
 
 For, Dellius, death will come no less 
 
 If length of days be wholly spanned 
 
 "With grief, or if as glad hours laugh 
 You lie in quiet meads and quaff 
 
 Falenium's wine of choicest brand ; 
 
 "Where lofty pines and poplars white 
 
 Their boughs in friendly shade entwine 
 Together, and with winding line 
 
 The brooklet babbles in its flight. 
 
 Here call for wine and nard and bloom 
 
 Of roses fading all too fast, 
 
 "While youth remains and fortunes last 
 And Fate still spares the thread of doom. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 51 
 
 The lawns you buy you must forsake, 
 That home by tawny Tiber's wave; 
 The growing stores for which you slave 
 
 In heirship wiU another {ake. 
 
 What boots your wealth or long descent 
 From Inachus ? As well to lie 
 A lowly beggar 'neath the- sky 
 
 For any ruth in Death's intent. 
 
 One bourn constrains us aU ; for all 
 The lots are shaken in the urn, 
 Whence soon or late will fall our turn 
 
 Of exile's barge without recall. 
 
 ODE IV. 
 
 To Xanthias PTioceus. 
 
 Because thy love turns to a waiting-maid, 
 Of shame, my Phoceus, be not thou afraid ! 
 
 Achilles' heart, of old "so proud, 
 To woo his fair-faced slave Briseis bowed. 
 
 To woo the captive of his mighty arms 
 
 Was Ajax moved by sweet Tecmessa's charms : 
 
 Atrides too, when triumph's tide 
 Was fullest, burned to win a stolen bride, 
 H 2 
 
52 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Wlieii, savage squadrons to destruction tost, 
 Thessalians conquered and, with Hector lost, 
 
 At last tte citadels of Troy 
 For wearied Greeks grew easy to destroy. 
 
 Perhaps ricli parents of thy Phyllis fair 
 To thee their son-in-law may honour bear ; 
 She surely with some royal throne 
 Doth kinship claim and fr6wning gods bemoan. 
 
 Feel that she springs not from the common herd, 
 That thy beloved, so faithful to her word, 
 
 So free from any greed of gain, 
 Could never need to blush for mother's stain. 
 
 Her grace of arm, of face, of rounded limb 
 Heart-whole I praise : need'st have no doubt of him 
 
 Whose age has to that point declined 
 Where two score years will soon be left behind. 
 
 ODE V. 
 
 To Lalages lover. 
 
 Too weak as yet to bear the yoke 
 
 With bended neck, she cannot take 
 Her share in double harness, and Love's stroke 
 Her strength would mar and break. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 53 
 
 Your heifer's heart on pastures green 
 
 Is fixt, and now in rivers cool 
 She bathes, or with the steers makes merry scene 
 Beside the osier pool. 
 
 Away with longing for the unripe grape : 
 
 Already Autumn comes for you, 
 Each darkening cluster in its turn to shape 
 And dye with purple hue. 
 
 She wUl pursue you soon : time flies, 
 And each year lost to your estate 
 WUl add to Lalage's, whose wilfal eyes 
 "Will soon seek out a mate. 
 
 More dear than Pholoe prone to flight, 
 
 Than white-armed Chloris still more fair, 
 "Who shines as cloudless moon on sea by night, 
 Or Cnidian Gyges rare. 
 
 Whom if you set 'mid band of girls, 
 
 The shrewdest strangers he'd beguile, 
 Perplexing them with wealth of flowing curls 
 And face of doubtful smile. 
 
54 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE VI. 
 
 To Septimius. 
 
 Septimius, to Gades wlio woiild journey by my 
 
 side, 
 Or to the Cantabri, unbroke to yoke of Roman 
 
 pride, 
 
 Or to the savage Syrtes, or to where the Moorish 
 
 tide 
 
 For ever boils; 
 
 May Tibur Argive-founded be the resting-place- 
 
 for me 
 When age has come upon me, for some limit there 
 
 must be; 
 Of travel I am weaiy, I am weary of the sea 
 
 And warfare's toils. 
 
 But if my life Fate's harsh decree away from 
 
 here should keep, 
 Galaesus' stream I'll make for with its charm of 
 
 fiill-fleeoed sheep, 
 
 Or land where Spartan chieftain once was lord of 
 
 meadows deep, 
 
 Phalantus' fields. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 55 
 
 Of all the fairest spots on earth, the fairest in 
 my eyes 
 
 That little nook lies smiling, where its olive- 
 berry vies 
 
 "With verdure of Venafrum, nor Hymettus sweeter 
 prize 
 
 Of honey yields. 
 
 For slowly here the springtide in a lengthy life- 
 time flows. 
 
 And Jupiter on winter months a genial warmth 
 bestows, 
 
 And Aulon, frieiid to Bacchus, feels of grapes 
 Falemum grows 
 
 No jealous fear. 
 
 Yes, thither we are summoned, and that place calls 
 
 me and you 
 Whose hills with fruitftilness are blest, and where, 
 
 a comrade true, 
 
 You shall the glowing ashes of your poet-friend 
 
 bedew 
 
 "With duty's tear. 
 
56 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 ODE VII. 
 To Ponvpeius Varus. 
 
 "With me you often reached time's direst strait 
 
 "WTien Brutus led our chivalry: 
 
 To fathers' gods and Latin sky 
 Who gave you back in Roman's ftdl estate, 
 
 Pompeius, of my boon-companions best? 
 With you ftill oft day's lagging flight 
 I hastened, wine in hand, as bright 
 
 Our tresses gleamed with Sjniian spikenard drest. 
 
 With you I knew Philippi's rout and race, 
 My shield unknightly left behind, 
 When crushed was pride of vaunting mind 
 
 And suppliants earthward tamely bowed the face. 
 
 Me Mei'cury the nimble from the foe 
 Stole trembling in a veil of mist, 
 But you, where angry bUlows hissed, 
 
 The tide of war sucked back with seething flow. 
 
 To Jove then give the feast that is his due, 
 And wearied by war's long delay 
 Come stretch your limbs beneath my bay, 
 
 Nor spare the casks which have been kept for you. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 57 
 
 Let gleaming goblets brim with Massio wine 
 That brings forgetfulness, and pour 
 From ample shells unstinted store 
 
 Of perfume. Crowns of myrtle who wiU twine 
 
 Or parsley damp, and who with dice will gain 
 "Wine's kingship ? Mad as Thrace 
 Shall be my frenzy : gladly for a space, 
 
 My friend restored, I give excess the rein. 
 
 ODE VIII. 
 
 To Barine. 
 
 If loss, Barine, you had ever borne 
 As penalty for oath forsworn ; 
 If by one blackened tooth or single nail 
 Your charms should fail, 
 
 I might believe. But you, with solemn vow 
 When you have bound your guilty brow, 
 For youths walk forth in glamour still more fair, 
 A common care. 
 
 To cheat your mother's ashes brings you gain,"^ 
 To cheat the sky and nightly train 
 Of silent stars and gods exempt from touch 
 Of Death's cold clutch. 
 
58 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 At this smiles Venus' self; at this too smile 
 The artless nymphs, and all the while 
 Fell Cupid's bloody whetstone gives each dart 
 A keener smart.. 
 
 For you it is that youths to manhood grow, 
 4-nd growing make new slaves ; nor go 
 From godless mistress'- roof your older set, 
 Though oft they threat. 
 
 'Tis you that for their young bloods mothers dread, 
 And misers old, and girls just wed, 
 In terror lest their lords your winning air 
 Should hold in snare. 
 
 ODE IX. 
 To C. Valgitts. 
 
 Not always do the rain- clouds pour 
 
 On fields unkempt ; o'er Caspian wave 
 Not always do the tempests rave 
 
 And harry ; on Armenian shore 
 
 Not month by month, friend Valgius, frost 
 Stands stirless, or Garganum's oaks 
 Strain always. to the North "Wind's strokes, 
 
 Or ashes mourn their foliage lost. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 59 
 
 You never with one theme have done, 
 
 And strains that for lost Mystes grieve : 
 Bides love, or rises star of eve 
 
 Or flees before the rapid sun. 
 
 The seer, whose age reached triple span, 
 Not all his days to mourning kept 
 For loved Antilochus, nor wept 
 
 His sire and sisters always o'er the ban 
 
 That slew their Troilus. From weak 
 Laments at length delist, and tell 
 We rather how new triumphs swell 
 
 For- Caesar ; of Niphates' peak, 
 
 How now the Median river yields 
 Subdued to roll a humbled crest, 
 And how with settled bounds comprest 
 
 Geloni ride in narrowed fields. 
 
 ODE X. 
 
 To Licinius. 
 
 LiciNius, the passage of your life will better be, 
 If neither always you are bent on making open sea. 
 Nor, dreading storms, too closely hug the shore upon 
 your lee. 
 
 I 2 
 
6o THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 "Whoever witli devotion dotli pursue tlie golden 
 
 mean, 
 Avoids secure the hovel with its carelessness unclean, 
 Avoids content the palace and the envy of its sheen. 
 
 The tallest pine most often is the pla3rthing of the 
 
 blast, 
 The loftiest turret tumbles with the loudest crash 
 
 at last, 
 At highest peaks of mountains are the bolts of 
 
 thunder cast. 
 
 A breast well fortified will hope whenever days 
 
 are sad 
 For change of lot, and change wiU dread when 
 
 fate and life are glad. 
 If Jupiter the winter brings in dreary aspect clad, 
 
 He too in turn will take away. Because of present 
 
 woe 
 Think not that woe must last. Apollo oft with glow 
 Of music stirs the silent muse nor always strings 
 
 his bow. 
 
 "When fortunes pinch, let stoutness of a gallant soul 
 
 prevail 
 "With courage'; and with prudence take in reefs 
 
 upon a sail 
 That bellies to the blowing of an all too lucky gale. 
 
"\ THE ODES OF HORACE. 6l 
 
 ODE XI. 
 To Quintius Hirpinus. 
 
 QuiNTius HiEPiNTJS, Seek not thou to read 
 
 The thoughts of warlike Scyths and Cantabri, 
 Since Adriatic waves between us lie, 
 
 Nor wear thy soul in planning for the need 
 
 Of life that- wants but little. Down the steep 
 Behind us smooth-faced youth and beauty stray, 
 As withered age's whiteness scares away 
 
 The sports of love and ease of ready sleep. 
 
 The blooms of spring keep not a changeless grace 
 For ever, nor the glowing moon we find 
 With one look shining. Wherefore vex the mind 
 
 With schemes for which it owns too short a space ? 
 
 'Neath lofty plane or pine then let us lay 
 Ourselves in careless ease, while fates permit, 
 And let us drinking deep in fragrance sit 
 
 With scent of rose upon our tresses grey 
 
 And Eastern, nard. The smarts of gnawing care 
 Doth Evius scatter far. What nimble, page 
 Will dash for me Falemum's fiery rage 
 
 With water from the brook that passes there ? 
 
62 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 "WTio Lyde from her home will coaxing snare— 
 The wandering wanton? Gro and bid her haste 
 To bring her iv'ry lute and, Spartan taste, 
 
 To bind in simple knot her flowing hair. 
 
 ODE XII. 
 
 To Maecenas. 
 
 Fell Hannibal, and Sicily's fair tide 
 "With blood of Carthaginians purple-dyed, 
 And fierce Numantia's lengthy wars refrain 
 From wedding to the lute's soft strain ; 
 
 And savage Lapithae, and wind's poor thrall, 
 Hylaeus, and the giants who did fall 
 Subdued by Hercules, what time their might 
 Shook ancient Saturn's haUs of light 
 
 With peril. You shall better tell in prose, 
 Maecenas, how our Caesar crushed his foes, 
 And how the necks of kings who vaunted high 
 "Were bowed and through our streets led by. 
 
 My Muse has wiUed that I should sing sweet lays 
 Of your Licymnia, and that I .should praise 
 The glamour of her eyes, the changeless troth 
 That binds the faithful hearts of both. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 63 
 
 It graces her to foot it in the dance, 
 In sports to vie when maids of merry glance 
 Link arms with her upon the day divine 
 That throngs Diana's holy shrine. 
 
 Would you consent Licymnia's locks to trade 
 For all the wealth Achaemenes displayed, 
 For all that Phrygia to her Mygdon bore, 
 For all Arabia's teeming store; 
 
 To your hot kisses when her neck she turns, 
 Or else resents with wrath that faintly bums 
 The theft she finds the sweeter of the two, 
 Or filches first anon from you? 
 
 ODE XIII. 
 To a tree that had all but Teilled him. 
 
 Whoever planted thee at first, 
 His work did, tree, on day ill-starred, 
 Who, fain with godless hand thy growth to guard, 
 
 Descendants doomed and hamlet curst. 
 
 That he had strangled his own sire 
 I could believe, and that he shed 
 By night the life-stream of a guest who bled 
 
 Upon his hearth-stone: poison's fire 
 
64 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 From Colcliis, every crime abliorr'd 
 He handled who did thee instal 
 Within my homestead's limits, doomed to fall, 
 
 Sad trunk, on me thy guiltless lord. 
 
 From hour to hour man never knows 
 What most to shun : while sailor dreads 
 The Bosporus, of fate that unseen treads 
 
 From otherwhence he fearless goes ; 
 
 The soldier dreads the shaft and flight 
 Of rushing Parthian, he the chains 
 And gaols of Rome ; yet death who swept remains 
 
 To sweep the world with sudden might. 
 
 The realms of dusky Proserpine 
 And Aeacus on judgment-seat 
 Mine eyes did all but see, and dwellings meet 
 
 That holy souls apart enshrine, 
 
 Where Sappho on Aeolian strings 
 Wails for her country-women stUl, 
 And hymns. Alcaeus with a louder quiU 
 
 Of exile, sea and war the stings. 
 
 The phantoms, as each minstrel sings, 
 Stand duly awe-struck, but the herd 
 That crowded throngs to list is chiefly stirred 
 
 By battles and the flight of kings. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 65 
 
 What marvel, when through those sweet lays 
 The hundred-headed monster droops 
 His gloomy ears, and charmed to listen stoops 
 
 Each snake in Furies' hair that plays ? 
 
 Prometheus thanks to music's grace 
 And Pelops' sire their toils forget ; 
 No longer now Orion's heart is set 
 
 On lynx and lion and the chase. 
 
 ODE XIV. 
 To Postumus. 
 
 Alas, my Postumus, the fleet years fade, 
 And righteousness itself will not avail 
 With wrinkled age to make its footstep fail. 
 
 Nor will unconquered Death be thus delayed ; 
 
 Not though each day — he heeds no tearful cries - 
 Three hundred buUs in sacrifice you gave 
 To Pluto, who with fold of gloomy wave 
 
 Imprisons Geryon of triple size 
 
 And Tityon, a wave we all must face 
 
 And cross, who on the bounty of the earth 
 Are nourished, whether chiefs of kingly birth 
 
 Or husbandmen that spring of pauper race. 
 
 K 
 
66 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 'Tis vain for us to shun Mars' bloody fields 
 And Hadria's billows roaring into spray ; 
 'Tis vain to dread throughout each autumn day 
 
 The harmfal mischief that the South Wind' wields. 
 
 "We needs must journey where with stream of oil 
 The black Cocytus strays, where cursM clan 
 Of Danaus lurks, and where the judge's ban 
 
 Dooms son of Aeolus to ceaseless toil. 
 
 The park, the mansion, and the comely wife 
 Must all be left, nor of the trees yoji tend 
 WiU one, save hateful cypress, see the end 
 
 Of their frail owner and his fleeting life. 
 
 A worthier heir your Caecuban will drain 
 That you had guarded with a hundred- keys, 
 And wine, more rich than pontiffs give to please 
 
 Their guests, will haughtily the pavement stain. 
 
 ODE XV. 
 Against the luxury of his time. 
 
 Yon princely halls will leave us now 
 
 But scanty acres for the plough, 
 And broader to the eyes than Lucrine lake 
 Fish-ponds will grow, and widow'd plane will take 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 67 
 
 The place of elms. There violet-bed 
 And myrtle will their fragrance spread 
 In streams of perfume, where an older sway 
 Saw oliye-yards their teeming fruit display. 
 
 There laurels with thick boughs will meet 
 
 In shelter from the glowing heat, 
 Though Eomulus laid down a different rule 
 And other laws had unshorn Cato's school. 
 
 Their private revenues were small 
 And large the common funds of all. 
 For private owners stretched no colonnade 
 In measured length to catch the Northern shade ; 
 
 |Ior did the laws let men despise 
 The turf that chanced to catch their eyes, 
 "Where towns and temples from the public chest 
 Those laws with new stone ordered to be drest. 
 
 ODE XVI. 
 
 To Pompeius Grosphus. 
 
 FoK calm the storm-caught sailor prays 
 On open sea, when black cloud lays 
 Its veil on moon, and certain way 
 No guiding stars display: 
 
 K 2 
 
68 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 For calm the rage of warlike Thrace, 
 For calm the Medes whom quivers grace, 
 My Grosphus, that nor purple dye 
 
 Nor gems nor gold can buy. 
 
 For neither wealth nor consul's guard 
 Can move on care from mind ill-starred, 
 Or troubled thoughts that flitting roam 
 Eound roof of fretted dome. 
 
 He lives life well on scant supply 
 Whose father's salt-dish glitters by 
 On frugal board, nor greed nor fright 
 Can break his slumbers light. 
 
 With time so short why aim to gain 
 So much? Why after sunshine strain 
 In foreign lands? What exile lone 
 
 From self with home hath flown ? 
 
 Corroding care climbs brazen ships, 
 Nor far from horsemen's troop she slips, 
 More fleet than stag, more fleet than gale 
 That makes the storm-clouds sail. 
 
 Let hearts, if joy be present, hate 
 To mourn for chance of future fate, 
 And season grief with smiles. To nought 
 Is bliss unbroken brought. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 69 
 
 Swift death Achilles swept away, 
 Tithonus dwindled with decay 
 Of age, and time may give to me 
 What time denies to thee. 
 
 Round thee Sicilian heifers low 
 And countless flocks, a-neighing go 
 Thy harness-mares, clad is thy pride 
 In, raiment doubly dyed 
 
 With Afrio's purple : acres few 
 
 And of Greek song some humble hue 
 
 To me has honest Fate allowed 
 
 And scorn of common crowd. 
 
 ODE XVII. 
 To Maecenas. 
 
 Why dost thou wear me with complaints away? 
 'Tis not the will of Heayen or me that fate 
 Should take thee first, Maecenas ; my estate 
 
 In thee finds honour and a certain stay. 
 
 If Death should lay too soon his hand on thee, 
 My heart's best half, why should I linger on 
 In widowhood whose form and grace are gone ? 
 
 That day for both the day of doom shall be. 
 
70 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 No traitor's oath, is tMs whicli I have sworn: 
 Whenever thou shalt lead me I will go, 
 Prepared my loyal comradeship to show 
 
 And journey with thee to the final bourn. 
 
 Me either fierce Chimaera's fiery breath 
 Or G-yas, should he rise to life again, 
 With hundred hands from thee to tear in vain 
 
 Would strive : so Justice wills and fatefiil Death. 
 
 If Libra looked upon my infant head, 
 Or Scorpio, whose fearsome powers ordain 
 From natal hour career of storm and pain,_ 
 
 Or Capricorn whom western waters dread, 
 
 Our horoscopes agree in wondrous way. 
 To rescue thee the guardianship of Jove, 
 On godless Saturn flashing answer, strove, 
 
 And made the rushing wings of Fate delay, 
 
 What time the thronging people, glad to show 
 Their joy, in theatre thrice raised acclaim : 
 Upon my head a tree-trunk falling came 
 
 Death-laden, had not Faunus turned the blow 
 
 With hand that ever ready help supplies 
 
 To men of Mercury's likeness. Gifts of thine 
 Are due, forget not, victims and a shrine : 
 
 A humble lamb shall be my sacrifice. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. * 71 
 
 ODE XVIII. 
 Why he covets not wealth. 
 
 Ivory and golden panels 
 
 G-leam not briglitly in my home ; 
 Columns of Hymettus weigh not 
 
 Down on pedestals that come 
 From remotest Afiic's quarries ; 
 
 Nor, a stranger heir, I tread 
 Halls of Attains ; retainers 
 
 Spin for me no purple thread. 
 Truth is mine with vein of talent 
 
 AH unstinted, and poor me 
 Eiich men seek. Content I press not 
 
 Gods that gifts should greater be, 
 Or from friends ask fuller largess 
 
 Than my Sabine farm to gain. 
 On the heels of day day treadeth, 
 
 New moons hasten on to wane. 
 You contract for hewing marble 
 
 With your one foot in the grave ; 
 Blind to death, you rear your palace 
 
 And from Baiae's fretftd wave 
 Strive to steal its strand, unsated 
 
 With the limit of the shore. 
 
72 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Hence you move your neighbour's landmark, 
 
 In your greeS careering o'er 
 Clients' mearings : sires and mothers 
 
 Thus are driven from their farms, 
 With their squalid children bearing 
 
 Gods ancestral in their arms. 
 Yet for wealthy heir no mansion 
 
 Surer than the fated goal 
 Of devouring death is waiting. 
 
 Why then ftirther vex your soul ? 
 Equally the earth for beggar 
 
 Yawns and for the sons of kings : 
 Bribed by gold not shrewd Prometheus 
 
 Orcus' watch- dog backward brings. 
 Race of Tantalus the haughty 
 
 He imprisons ; when appears 
 Destined end of pauper's labours. 
 
 Called or called not, he hath ears. 
 
 ODE XIX. 
 To Father Bacchus. 
 
 To me did Bacchus on lone cliffs appear 
 Inditing songs — believe me, fature years 1 
 I saw the Nymphs his pupils, and the ears 
 
 Of Satyrs hoofed like goats prick'd up to hear. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 73 
 
 Evoe, my heart still beats with late alarm, 
 And shocks of wild delight my bosom tear 
 That Baoohus fills. Evoe, spare us, spare 
 
 Liber, with dread wand of potent charm. 
 
 For me hot-headed Thyades to sing 
 
 'Tis lawful ; hymn will I wine's fountain source, 
 And streams of milk that in rich bounty course, 
 
 And honeyed rills from hoUow trunks that spring. 
 
 'Tis right too of that blessJsd bride to tell 
 Who won a starry crown, how stone from stone 
 The haUs of Pentheus were in ruin thrown, 
 
 How hand of death upon Lyourgus fell. 
 
 Thou rulest rivers and the savage main ; 
 
 With wine made mellow on some lonely hill 
 Thou canst enwreathe without a touch of ill 
 
 Thy Thracian women's looks with viper chain. 
 
 Thou, when the realms that own thy father's law 
 The godless band of giants to attack 
 Were climbing upward, Ehoetus didst hurl back 
 
 With lion's talons and terrific jaw. 
 
 Although more fit for dance or game or jest 
 Wast thou reported; though the story went 
 That thou for battle hadst but little bent, 
 
 Of peace and war alike 1<hou stoodst the test, 
 t L 
 
74 THE ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 When Cerberus saw thee graced with honour meet 
 Of golden horn, he harmless grew, and swayed 
 His tail in gentle mood, and e'en essayed 
 
 With triple tongue to lick thy legs and feet. 
 
 ODE XX. 
 
 To Maecenas. 
 
 Upon no worn or weakling wing, 
 A two-formed bard, through liquid air I'U soar; 
 Nor will I longer stay on earthly shore; 
 
 For rising above envy^s sting 
 
 I '11 leave men's cities. Not to me, 
 Though bom of lowly sires, will death appear. 
 Since you, Maecenas, deign to caU me dear; 
 
 Nor shall the Styx my prison be. 
 
 Upon my legs already grows 
 A, scaly skin, and now above I stand 
 To guise of snowy bird transformed ; on hand 
 
 And shoulder burnished plumage shows. 
 
 And next, a bird of tunefal note. 
 In flight more swift than Icarus I'll turn 
 Where moans the Bosporus, where Syrtes bum. 
 
 Where lies the northern plain remote. 
 
THE ODES OF HORACE. 75 
 
 Me Scyth. and Colchian too shall know. 
 And Daoian veiling dread of Marsian hosts ; 
 To hear of me and mine the Spanish coasts 
 
 And drinkers of the Ehine shall grow. 
 
 Away with dirge's idle strain, 
 Away with grief and its tinsightly gloom ; 
 Restrain your sobs, and let no useless tomb 
 
 Be raised to do me honour vain. 
 
 L 2 
 
ANDROMEDA. 
 
 Where restless sea-winds fire tlie soul like wine, 
 Where sheer cliflfs rise and grimly breast the brine, 
 Where billows break and in sad cadence moan 
 And sigh and die, a maiden stood alone. 
 No painter's hand could limn, no sculptor's sight 
 In dreams might scan a form more brightly white. 
 More supply slender, or a face more fair: 
 Wind-wafted round her floated sunny hair 
 That falling rose and rising fell to fold 
 Her shoulders close in streams of rippling gold : 
 More blue than summer seas or cloudless skies 
 The tender beauty of her long-lashed eyes. 
 As wooer's gaze that hungers to be fed, 
 The radiant sunrise on her radiant head 
 Fell lingeringly and lightly, and the air 
 Stayed lovingly to greet her, passing there: 
 The very waves, she was so rarely sweet, 
 Struggled to climb and kiss her dainty feet. 
 
78 ANDROMEDA. 
 
 For her who stood thei'e helpless, hopeless, gyved, 
 
 In vain the sun his loving lures contrived ; 
 
 His coming brings death nearer, and his eye 
 
 For aU this love must look and see her die: 
 
 In vain the amorous air so fondly sighs, 
 
 That air must soon receive her parting cries: 
 
 In vain the waves leap upward to her feet, 
 
 Those waves must bear the doom she dreads to meet. 
 
 Self-pitying sorrow and a rueful ruth 
 
 Stole on her for the springtide of her youth 
 
 Thus early blasted, and a vision rose 
 
 That for the moment scattered aU her woes, 
 
 As melt the mists of morning, and awhile 
 
 Came dreams that made her sleeping sadness smile. 
 
 Flower-crowned she moved along a blissful bride ; 
 
 A hero lover happy at her, side 
 
 In all the beauty of his youth she saw, 
 
 Where word of each was to the other law. 
 
 Then with her waking rained the hot salt tears, 
 
 Returned the anguish of her frenzied fears ; 
 
 And, as the darkness passed at morning-tide. 
 
 Awaiting death a thousand times she died. 
 
 Outlined at last against the Eastern sky 
 
 She saw the shape of horror drawing nigh 
 
 And ever nigher, till her spirit quailed, 
 
 The prayer for death upon her white lips failed 
 
 And changed to wild entreaty for delay. 
 
 For space of grace, for one hour's stop and stay. 
 
ANDROMEDA. 79 
 
 In vain on heaven she calls, no Grod replies: 
 The slayer turns the glare of hungry eyes 
 Upon her beauty, speeding on apace : 
 But when his hot breath bums upon her face, 
 When towards its prey that awful presence springs, 
 She heard the sudden swoop of waving wings, 
 She saw the monster stiffen fold by fold. 
 His hideous heat of glaring eyes grow cold 
 And lifeless, as the sharp chiU caught his breath 
 And froze his ghastly form to stony death. 
 One sabre-clash that rings from rock to sea — 
 The galling chains are riven — she is free! 
 And so from death she passes unto life 
 And love that dies not, love that from all strife 
 Will safely shelter through the coming years. 
 All pain will pity and will dry aU tears. 
 
 Ah me ! the beauty of that teeming store 
 Of old-world legends filled with tender lore 
 That Knks us to the lives and loves of yore, 
 Which live and love amongst us evermore! 
 To reach through fears and tears a peace complete, 
 To gain through moil and toil a Ufe-love sweet. 
 Who would not face such dread, such perils share. 
 If work or woe might win a crown so fair ? 
 
AKIADNE. 
 
 As the tender shadows lengthen and the sunset 
 glories glow, 
 
 "Where the waves sweep slowly shoreward and the 
 summer breezes blow, 
 
 Still she sits and waits his coming, though in vain 
 for tearfal eyes 
 
 Smiling wavelets dip and dimple, shine and shim- 
 mer cloudless skies. 
 
 Dirge of sadness kin to madness is the music that 
 
 she hears, ^^ 
 Sung by wind's and wave's weird whispers rings 
 
 hope's requiem in her ears, 
 And the opal sheen, that westward weds in 
 
 glory sea and sky, 
 But recalls her love's lost glamour and the light 
 
 of days gone by. 
 
ARIADNE. 8l 
 
 Fair as Phoebus were the seven, firm and proud 
 
 their boyish tread ; 
 Like a king he towered above them, like a king 
 
 he held his head, 
 He, a helpless vengeance-victim, spake with eyes 
 
 though lips were dumb, 
 And the princess stooped to listen, for she knew 
 
 her hour was come. 
 
 To fiilfil a father's fancy and uphold a daughter's 
 truth. 
 
 Shall she let him die and shatter all the visions 
 of her youth? 
 
 Love is reason for her treason, duty's beauty 
 yields to love, 
 
 And she knows he will be constant as the change- 
 less stars above. 
 
 Home and hope were left behind him, and before 
 him lay the gloom 
 
 Of the house of death and darkness — all the horror 
 of his doom. 
 
 He had nerved himself to face them, he his father- 
 land's true son, 
 
 Yet he dreamed of foemen fleeing and of foughten 
 fields well won. 
 
 M 
 
82 ARIADNE. 
 
 Foes lie never now migM vanquish, fields lie 
 
 never now might win, 
 Not for him the victor's triumph or the joy of 
 
 battle's din : 
 No, for him the death of torment and the banks 
 
 beside whose wave 
 Must his spirit roam its cycle — ^neither God nor man 
 
 can save. 
 
 Then a maiden stole towards him, goddess-like in 
 
 gentle guise, 
 As a crown her golden tresses, like twin-stars 
 
 her grey-blue eyes : 
 Stately was she as Athene, and like Artemis for 
 
 grace. 
 Sweet as sea-bom Aphrodite's was the beauty of 
 
 her face. 
 
 Hope and help and life she brought him, sword 
 
 the Minotaur to slay, 
 And a clue to thrid the mazes where the blinded 
 
 windings lay; 
 And he whispers, 'Gentle lady, loyal love is all 
 
 divine, 
 Through the years the gods may send me, all that 
 
 love can give is thine.' 
 
ARIADNE. 83 
 
 She had braved a father's curses, she had lost her 
 
 name and fame; 
 He would 'scape the death and torture — she would 
 
 bear the blame and shame. 
 Thus his ruthless foe he vanquished, and the dark 
 
 clouds roUed away 
 In the sunshine of a passion that he vowed would 
 
 last for aye. 
 
 So they fleeing came to Naxos, and beneath its 
 summer skies 
 
 E'en the sun-god's rays shone colder than the love- 
 light in their eyes : 
 
 Never could the breeze's whisper or the murmur 
 of the sea, 
 
 Prove as tender as the music of a life-long love 
 should be. 
 
 Yet the crooning of the billows and the fragrance 
 of the air 
 
 Made their very love more lovely and their., day- 
 dreams seem more fair. 
 ****** 
 
 Now in vain she waits his coming, through the 
 ages nevermore 
 
 Will his heart speak unto her heart on the hill- 
 side or the shore. 
 
 M 2 
 
84 ARIADNE. 
 
 And hereafter, when her sceptre gleams in realms 
 
 of lofty light. 
 When her throne outshines the jewels of the 
 
 starry-kirtled night, 
 Through the life that is immortal, though her 
 
 diadem is bright, 
 She will mourn her early lover and her day of 
 
 dead delight. 
 
JASON. 
 
 To the haven thronged the people — wide their eyes 
 
 with wonder grew, 
 Much they marvelled at the vessel, more they 
 
 marvelled at her crew ; 
 For their pride essays by unknown ways to track 
 
 the trackless main, 
 And the fretful foam what man shall roam and 
 
 home return again? 
 
 With the royal maidens round him, 'midst his 
 
 people on the shore 
 Stood the aged king and trembled as he heard 
 
 the surge's roar : 
 For a moment's space his cruel face assumed 
 
 a gentler guise, 
 And the mists of passing pity veiled the murder 
 
 in his eyes. 
 
86 JASON. 
 
 But lie must not risk the lordship of a kingdom 
 long his own, 
 
 And his life that instant danger makes far dearer 
 than a throne: 
 
 So remorseful doubt he strangles, struggling new- 
 bom in his heart, 
 
 And, to hide his wiles, with crafty smiles he plays 
 the traitor's part. 
 
 'They are coming! they are coming 1' whispers 
 
 many an eager lip, 
 As from hallowed shrine, where aid divine for 
 
 mariners and ship 
 With the duteous care of . solemn prayer each 
 
 sought in faith complete, 
 To the waiting throng was borne along the beat 
 
 of marching feet. 
 
 Giants were they in their stature, stalwart were 
 
 they limbs and thews, 
 There were Heracles and Theseus and the twin-bom 
 
 sons of Zeus : 
 Such a beauteous band of heroes did Olympian 
 
 strongholds boast. 
 When the gods that live for ever rose to crush 
 
 the Titan host. 
 
JASON. 87 
 
 Through the serried masses swept they, that were 
 
 fain their ranks to press, 
 Through the voices breathing farewell and the 
 
 hands upraised to bless, 
 Till a deafening cheer out-thundered and in 
 
 myriad echoes rang 
 When they reached the white-prowed Argo and 
 
 on board their good ship sprang. 
 
 Then there fell a solemn silence, as in accents 
 
 loud and clear 
 Thrilled the proud young voice of Jason, saying 
 
 ' Friends and kinsmen dear, 
 Fare ye well, and know we shudder at no sight 
 
 or sound save shame, 
 And henceforth where fame shines brightest we 
 
 shall bear a peerless name. 
 
 ' Till the hand of death is on us, till the life-pulse 
 
 pause and cease, 
 We will toil to win the guerdon of the glorious 
 
 Grolden Fleece. 
 Loose the cable, strike the oar deep — cross we 
 
 now the uncrossed seas. 
 Steer we for the land of Colchis through the 
 
 blue Symplegades.' 
 
88 JASON. 
 
 For many a misty midnight, and for many dreary 
 
 All undaunted still they wandered through a waste 
 of weary ways, 
 
 And in vain the hungry biUows at their stout 
 ship curling sprang, 
 
 Safe they passed the path of perU and the clash- 
 ing chasm's clang. 
 
 But they lost their comrade Hylas, dowered with 
 
 gift of gentle grace, 
 And, enchanted by the formless phantom of a 
 
 flower-like face, 
 Fair Narcissus rushed to ruin where the nymphs 
 
 he scorned still weep 
 For the life that, lightly lovesick, blossomed into 
 
 dreamless sleep. 
 
 But at last one mom, when mists of dawn were 
 
 melting fast away. 
 Before their eyes in the sweet sunrise the land of 
 
 Colchis lay: 
 So they sought the royal presence, and Aeetes 
 
 grimly frowned 
 When the stranger stripling told him on what 
 
 errand he was bound. 
 
JASON. 89 
 
 With a wintry smile he listened, then in answer 
 
 stem and chill 
 Laid before him all the terror of the tasks he 
 
 must fiilfil. 
 'He who 'scapes unscathed the perils, wins the 
 
 prize, or failing — dies.' 
 And, the word scarce said, on Jason shone the 
 
 glow of ruthfal eyes. 
 
 For beside the king her father was a princess 
 
 standing there, 
 Dark as night her eyes that pitied, dark as 
 
 night her raven hair ; 
 Blazed with gold her godlike forehead, flashed 
 
 her arms with jewels rare, 
 And her beauty looked too heaven-bom to breathe 
 
 the common air; 
 
 For her sire's sire was the Sun-god : of a fiery 
 
 line she came, 
 Coursed the tide of pride and passion flowing 
 
 through her veins like flame. 
 Many a magic marvel made she : worked she wiles 
 
 of witchcraft well, 
 But more potent than her strongest charm the 
 
 spell of Eros fell. 
 
 N 
 
go JASON. 
 
 By her aid the frenzied fury of -fire-breathing 
 
 bnlls he broke, 
 Till he taught their necks obedience to the galling 
 
 of the yoke : 
 By her aid he made the valour weird of those 
 
 grim warriors yield 
 Who upsprang to arms, a gruesome harvest, from 
 
 a death-sown field : 
 
 Where his charge the dragon guarded with a 
 
 never-sleeping eye, 
 By her aid he made the shadows of unwonted 
 
 slumber lie: 
 So through days of deadly danger, and with deeds 
 
 undreamt-of done, 
 Did he reach the goal of glory and the Golden 
 
 Fleece was won. 
 
 Friends of old and home forsaking for this love 
 
 so new and true, 
 When her Jason fled from Colchis, with him fled 
 
 Medea too. 
 For a stranger among strangers in the far-off 
 
 Western life 
 Will her days be lonely ? never, while the husband 
 
 loves the wife. 
 
JASON. 91 
 
 Close the page, and leave the stoxy all undimmed 
 
 by after time, 
 By the sadness of its ending, by the horror of 
 
 its crime: 
 While he loves her, let us leave them to the 
 
 dreams of hope and youth, 
 Leave him flushed with new-won triumph, leave 
 
 her happy in his truth. 
 
HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY