Odes

Horace

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

  • Varus, are your trees in planting? put in none before the vine,
  • In the rich domain of Tibur, by the walls of Catilus;
  • There's a power above that hampers all that sober brains design,
  • And the troubles man is heir to thus are quell'd, and only thus.
  • Who can talk of want or warfare when the wine is in his head,
  • Not of thee, good father Bacchus, and of Venus fair and bright?
  • But should any dream of licence, there's a lesson may be read,
  • How 'twas wine that drove the Centaurs with the Lapithae to fight.