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The Odes of Horace in a metrical paraphrase
The Odes of Horace in a metrical paraphrase 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: III. The honest man, whose power of will Can put a mob's injustice down Or face a tyrant's angry frown, Maintains his settled purpose still; Though sea... more »s tempestuous bar the way And Jove's destructive lightnings flash, Though earth and heaven together crash, He fronts the wreck without dismay. So Hercules and Leda's boy Made good their entrance to the skies, And with them great Augustus lies Red-lipp'd with draughts of nectar'd joy. So tigers learnt to bear the yoke Of Bacchus, fresh from eastern wars, So, rescued by the steeds of Mars, From Acheron Quirinus broke. Then Juno spoke in suasive guise To Gods in council: Ilion Is fall'n, in treacherous Ilion The arbiter of beauty's prize And his strange paramour fulfill'd The doom pronounced when Priam's sire His gods defrauded of their hire; So I and chaste' Minerva will'd. Now to her guest's adulterous suit No more can Spartan harlot yield, Nor Grecian lance with Hector's shield For Priam's perjured house dispute. The war our quarrels fann'd is done: And here, to pleasure noble Mars And end our most unseemly jars, I bid the Trojan vestal's son Welcome to heaven's serene abodes; I bid him quaff the nectar-bowl, And grudge no longer to enrol His name among the tranquil Gods. If but the winds and waters rave 'Twixt Rome and Ilion, everywhere Their sceptre let the exiles bear; If cattle trample on the grave Of Priam and rank monsters breed Where festering Paris taints the land, The haughty Capitol may stand And Rome oppress the vanquish'd Mede. Let her o'er continent and isle To full supremacy attain, From utmost Gades to the plain That drinks the fertilizing Nile. Leaving untouch'd within the mine Gold that rapacious hands misuse, Holding exem...« less