Odes

Horace

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

  • Him, as the stag forgets to graze for fright,
  • Seeing the wolf at distance in the glade,
  • And flies, high panting, you shall fly, despite
  • Boasts to your leman made.
  • What though Achilles' wrathful fleet postpone
  • The day of doom to Troy and Troy's proud dames,
  • Her towers shall fall, the number'd winters flown,
  • Wrapp'd in Achaenan flames.”
  • O lovelier than the lovely dame
  • That bore you, sentence as you please
  • Those scurril verses, be it flame
  • Your vengeance craves, or Hadrian seas.
  • Not Cybele, nor he that haunts
  • Rich Pytho, worse the brain confounds,
  • Not Bacchus, nor the Corybants
  • Clash their loud gongs with fiercer sounds
  • Than savage wrath; nor sword nor spear
  • Appals it, no, nor ocean's frown,
  • Nor ravening fire, nor Jupiter
  • In hideous ruin crashing down.