Odes

Horace

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

  • Never, never look to find
  • A faithful heart in him whose rage can harm
  • Sweetest lips, which Venus kind
  • Has tinctured with her quintessential charm.
  • Happy, happy; happy they
  • Whose living love, untroubled by all strife,
  • Binds them till the last sad day,
  • Nor parts asunder but with parting life!
  • O luckless bark! new waves will force you back
  • To sea. O, haste to make the haven yours!
  • E'en now, a helpless wrack,
  • You drift, despoil'd of oars;
  • The Afric gale has dealt your mast a wound;
  • Your sailyards groan, nor can your keel sustain,
  • Till lash'd with cables round,
  • A more imperious main.