Odes

Horace

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

  • Though hail-storms on the vineyard beat,
  • Though crops deceive, though trees complain,
  • One while of showers, one while of heat,
  • One while of winter's barbarous reign.
  • Fish feel the narrowing of the main
  • From sunken piles, while on the strand
  • Contractors with their busy train
  • Let down huge stones, and lords of land
  • Affect the sea: but fierce Alarm
  • Can clamber to the master's side:
  • Black Cares can up ihe galley swarm,
  • And close behind the horseman ride.
  • If Phrygian marbles soothe not pain,
  • Nor star-bright purple's costliest wear,
  • Nor vines of true Falernian strain,
  • Nor Achaemenian spices rare,
  • Why with rich gate and pillard range
  • Upbuild new mansions, twice as high,
  • Or why my Sabine vale exchange
  • For more laborious luxury?