Odes by Horace

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THE ODES AND CARMEN SAECULARE OF HORACE

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INTEGER VITAE.


No need of Moorish archer's craft

To guard the pure and stainless liver;

He wants not, Fuscus, poison'd shaft

To store his quiver,

Whether he traverse Libyan shoals,

Or Caucasus, forlorn and horrent,

Or lands where far Hydaspes rolls

His fabled torrent.

A
wolf, while roaming trouble-free In Sabine wood, as fancy led me,

Unarm'd I sang my Lalage,

Beheld, and fled me.

Dire monster! in her broad oak woods

Fierce Daunia fosters none such other,

Nor
Juba's land, of lion broods The thirsty mother.

Place me where on the ice-bound plain

No tree is cheer'd by summer breezes,

Where Jove descends in sleety rain

Or sullen freezes;

Place me where none can live for heat,

'Neath Phoebus' very chariot plant me,

That smile so sweet, that voice so sweet,

Shall still enchant me.





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