Odes

Horace

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

O, whoe'er has heart and head

To stay our plague of blood, our civic brawls,

Would he that his name be read

“Father of Rome” on lofty pedestals,

Let him chain this lawless will,

And be our children's hero! cursed spite!

Living worth we envy still,

Then seek it with strain'd eyes, when snatch'd from sight.

What can sad laments avail

Unless sharp justice kill the taint of sin?

What can laws, that needs must fail

Shorn of the aid of manners form'd within,