Odes

Horace

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

  • Whate'er the bound to earth ordain'd,
  • There let her reach the arm of power,
  • Travelling, where raves the fire unrein'd,
  • And where the storm-cloud and the shower.
  • Yet, warlike Roman, know thy doom,
  • Nor, drunken with a conqueror's joy,
  • Or blind with duteous zeal, presume
  • To build again ancestral Troy.
  • Should Troy revive to hateful life,
  • Her star again should set in gore,
  • While I, Jove's sister and his wife,
  • To victory led my host once more.
  • Though Phoebus thrice in brazen mail
  • Should case her towers, they thrice should fall,
  • Storm'd by my Greeks: thrice wives should wail
  • Husband and son, themselves in thrall.”—
  • Such thunders from the lyre of love!
  • Back, wayward Muse! refrain, refrain
  • To tell the talk of gods above,
  • And dwarf high themes in puny strain.