Odes

Horace

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

  • Quick, boy, the chaplets and the nard,
  • And wine, that knew the Marsian war,
  • If roving Spartacus have spared
  • A single jar.
  • And bid Neaera come and trill,
  • Her bright locks bound with careless art:
  • If her rough porter cross your will,
  • Why then depart.
  • Soon palls the taste for noise and fray,
  • When hair is white and leaves are sere:
  • How had I fired in life's warm May,
  • In Plancus' year!
  • Wife of Ibycus the poor,
  • Let aged scandals have at length their bound:
  • Give your graceless doings o'er,
  • Ripe as you are for going underground.