Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ODES 1, 9. VIDES UT ALTA, by QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ODES 1, 9. VIDES UT ALTA, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Deep snow! Soracte stands solid under it
Last Line: Or from a finger an easy forfeit.
Alternate Author Name(s): Horace
Subject(s): Snow; Storms; Weather; Winter


Deep snow! Soracte stands solid under it.
How white the woods are! Scarcely supportable
That load is on their backs: behold them!
And not a brook but is icy-crusted.
Thaw out the frost, and freely put on the logs,
Piling the hearth up; nay, for a kindliness,
Fetch down the four winters' maturing,
My Thaliarch—the Sabine elixir.
All else to heav'n leave: heav'n has allayed the rage
Of stormy tempests fighting a sea battle
And tranquillized our lately windtossed
Cypresses and veterans of ash trees.
As for the future, seek not a hint of it,
But use the day's gift; draw form it interest,
Not spurning, O young men, the instincts
Of the susceptible, and the ball room,
While yet the green sap keeps the head ungrizzled
Unsoured. The park side and promenade be it,
And softly at nightfall the whispered
Intimacies of a tryst's appointment,
Where from the corner gleefully half-hidden
Love hears the laugh that tells a betrayed presence,
Exacting off snatched arm a token
Or from a finger an easy forfeit.





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