Odes

Horace

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

  • He vows revenge for guiltless blood,
  • And, spite of Jove, his banks o'erflows,
  • Uxorious flood.
  • Yes, Fame shall tell of civic steel
  • That better Persian lives had spilt,
  • To youths, whose minish'd numbers feel
  • Their parents' guilt.
  • What god shall Rome invoke to stay
  • Her fall? Can suppliance overbear
  • The ear of Vesta, turn'd away
  • From chant and prayer?
  • Who comes, commission'd to atone
  • For crime like ours? at length appear,
  • A cloud round thy bright shoulders thrown,
  • Apollo seer!
  • Or Venus, laughter-loving dame,
  • Round whom gay Loves and Pleasures fly;
  • Or thou, if slighted sons may claim
  • A parent's eye,
  • O weary with thy long, long game,