ODES III, 2 by QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS

FRIEND! with a poor man's straits to fight
Let warfare teach thy stalwart boy:
Let him the Parthian's front annoy
With lance in rest, a dreaded knight:

Live in the field, inure his eye
To danger. From the foeman's wall
May the armed tyrant's dame, with all
Her damsels, gaze on him, and sigh,

"Dare not, in war unschooled, to rouse
Yon Lion -- whom to touch is death,
To whom red Anger ever saith,
'@3Slay and slay on'@1 -- O prince, my spouse!"

-- Honoured and blest the patriot dies.
From death the recreant may not flee:
Death shall not spare the faltering knee
And coward back of him that flies.

Valour -- unbeat, unsullied still --
Shines with pure lustre: all too great
To seize or drop the sword of state,
Swayed by a people's veering will.

Valour -- to souls too great for death
Heav'n op'ning -- treads the untrodden way:
And this dull world, this damp cold clay,
On wings of scorn, abandoneth.

-- Let too the sealed lip honoured be.
The babbler, who'd the secrets tell
Of holy Ceres, shall not dwell
Where I dwell; shall not launch with me

A shallop. Heaven full many a time
Hath with the unclean slain the just:
And halting-footed Vengeance must
O'ertake at last the steps of crime.

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!

Other Poems of Interest...