Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ODES 1, 9. VIDES UT ALTA, by QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS 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 Thaliarchthe 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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LOOKING EAST IN THE WINTER by JOHN HOLLANDER WINTER DISTANCES by FANNY HOWE WINTER FORECAST by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN AT WINTER'S EDGE by JUDY JORDAN CHAMBER MUSIC: 34 by JAMES JOYCE EPODE: 2. THE PRAISES OF A COUNTRY LIFE by QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS |
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