Odes

Horace

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

  • Sing Tempe too, glad youths, in strain as loud,
  • And Phoebus' birthplace, and that shoulder fair,
  • His golden quiver proud
  • And brother's lyre to bear.
  • His arm shall banish Hunger, Plague, and War
  • To Persia and to Britain's coast, away
  • From Rome and Caesar far,
  • If you have zeal to pray.
  • No need of Moorish archer's craft
  • To guard the pure and stainless liver;
  • He wants not, Fuscus, poison'd shaft
  • To store his quiver,
  • Whether he traverse Libyan shoals,
  • Or Caucasus, forlorn and horrent,
  • Or lands where far Hydaspes rolls
  • His fabled torrent.
  • A wolf, while roaming trouble-free
  • In Sabine wood, as fancy led me,
  • Unarm'd I sang my Lalage,
  • Beheld, and fled me.