Odes

Horace

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

  • Then, as in hundred-citied Crete
  • She landed,—“O my sire!” she said,
  • “O childly duty! passion's heat
  • Has struck thee dead.
  • Whence came I? death, for maiden's shame,
  • Were little. Do I wake to weep
  • My sin? or am I pure of blame,
  • And is it sleep
  • From dreamland brings a form to trick
  • My senses? Which was best? to go
  • Over the long, long waves, or pick
  • The flowers in blow?
  • O, were that monster made my prize,
  • How would I strive to wound that brow,
  • How tear those horns, my frantic eyes
  • Adored but now!
  • Shameless I left my father's home;
  • Shameless I cheat the expectant grave;
  • O heaven, that naked I might roam
  • In lions' cave!