Odes

Horace

Horace. The Odes and Carmen Saeculare of Horace. Conington, John, translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1882.

  • What man, what hero, Clio sweet,
  • On harp or flute wilt thou proclaim?
  • What god shall echo's voice repeat
  • In mocking game
  • To Helicon's sequester'd shade,
  • Or Pindus, or on Haemus chill,
  • Where once the hurrying woods obey'd
  • The minstrel's will,
  • Who, by his mother's gift of song,
  • Held the fleet stream, the rapid breeze,
  • And led with blandishment along
  • The listening trees?
  • Whom praise we first? the sire on high,
  • Who gods and men unerring guides,
  • Who rules the sea, the earth, the sky,
  • Their times and tides.
  • No mightier birth may he beget;
  • No like, no second has he known;
  • Yet nearest to her sire's is set
  • Minerva's throne.