Odes

Horace

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

If the merchant turns not back

From the fierce heats that round the tropic glow,

Turns not from the regions black

With northern winds, and hard with frozen snow;

Sailors override the wave,

While guilty poverty, more fear'd than vice.

Bids us crime and suffering brave,

And shuns the ascent of virtue's precipice?

Let the Capitolian fane,

The favour'd goal of yon vociferous crowd,

Aye, or let the nearest main

Receive our gold, our jewels rich and proud: