Odes

Horace

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

  • Bring wine and scents, and roses' bloom,
  • Too brief, alas! to that sweet place;
  • While life, and fortune, and the loom
  • Of the Three Sisters yield you grace.
  • Soon must you leave the woods you buy,
  • Your villa, wash'd by Tiber's flow,
  • Leave,—and your treasures, heap'd so high,
  • Your reckless heir will level low.
  • Whether from Argos' founder born
  • In wealth you lived beneath the sun,
  • Or nursed in beggary and scorn,
  • You fall to Death, who pities none.
  • One way all travel; the dark urn
  • Shakes each man's lot, that soon or late
  • Will force him, hopeless of return,
  • On board the exile-ship of Fate.
  • Why, Xanthias, blush to own you love
  • Your slave? Briseis, long ago,
  • A captive, could Achilles move
  • With breast of snow.