Odes

Horace

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

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:

Slay we thus the cause of crime,

If yet we would repent and choose the good:

Ours the task to take in time

This baleful lust, and crush it in the bud.

Ours to mould our weakling sons

To nobler sentiment and manlier deed:

Now the noble's first-born shuns

The perilous chase, nor learns to sit his steed:

Set him to the unlawful dice,

Or Grecian hoop, how skilfully he plays!

While his sire, mature in vice,

A friend, a partner, or a guest betrays,