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Horace: the Odes, Epodes, Satires, and Epistles
Horace the Odes Epodes Satires and Epistles Author:Horace Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Nor let thy people's crimes provoke thy flight, On air swift rising to the realms of light. Great prince and father of the state, receive The noblest triumph... more »s which thy Rome can give; Nor let the Parthian with unpunished pride, Beyond his bounds, O Caesar, dare to ride. Philip Francis, D.D. ODE III. TO THE SHIP IN WHICH VIRGIL SAILED TO ATHENS. " Sic te Diva." So may the auspicious queen of love, And the twin stars (the seed of Jove), And he who rules the raging wind, To thee, O sacred ship, be kind, And gentle breezes fill thy sails, Supplying soft Etesian gales, As thou, to whom the muse commends The best of poets and of friends, Dost thy committed pledge restore, And land him safely on the shore ; And save the better part of me From perishing with him at sea. Sure he, who first the passage tried, In hardened oak his heart did hide, And ribs of iron armed his side ! Or his at least, in hollow wood The Gemini, favourable to mariners. Who tempted first the briny flood ; Nor feared the winds' contending roar, Nor billows beating on the shore ; Nor Hyades portending rain ; Nor all the tyrants of the main. What form of death could him affright Who, unconcerned, with steadfast sight, Could view the surges mounting steep, And monsters rolling in the deep ? Could through the ranks of ruin go, With storms above, and rocks below ? In vain did Nature's wise command Divide the waters from the land, If daring ships, and men profane, Invade the inviolable main ; The eternal fences overleap, And pass at will the boundless deep. No toil, no hardship can restrain Ambitious man inured to pain ; The more confined, the more he tries, And at forbidden quarry flies. Thus bold Prometheus did aspire, And stole from heaven the reed of fire : A train of ills, a ghastly cre...« less