Odes

Horace

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

  • Like moon just dawning on the night
  • The crescent honours of his head;
  • One dapple spot of snowy white,
  • The rest all red.
  • He whom thou, Melpomene,
  • Hast welcomed with thy smile, in life arriving,
  • Ne'er by boxer's skill shall be
  • Renown'd abroad, for Isthmian mastery striving;
  • Him shall never fiery steed
  • Draw in Achaean car a conqueror seated;
  • Him shall never martial deed
  • Show, crown'd with bay, after proud kings defeated,
  • Climbing Capitolian steep:
  • But the cool streams that make green Tibur flourish,
  • And the tangled forest deep,
  • On soft Aeolian airs his fame shall nourish.