Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE HOME OF HORACE, by GEORGE MEASON WHICHER First Line: The cold licenza through the valley brawls Last Line: This worse than ruined house of thine to know! Subject(s): Horace (65-8 B.c.) | ||||||||
1912 The cold Licenza through the valley brawls; Unchanged the forest rustles on the hill; The ploughman to his lagging oxen calls Amid the selfsame vines; and murmuring still Adown the hollow rock the fountain falls To yield the wandering herd its welcome chill. Each sound to him so long familiar grown Even now the poet's loving ear had known, Could he but stand again within these walls Which once the kindly gods made all his own. Poor poet! who so dreaded lest his book Might come to be at last a schoolroom bore. How would he mourn to see his cherished nook Laid bare, a prey for our myopic lore! Sweet peace has fled, and prying eyes may look On crumbling step and tessellated floor. Stripped to the garish light of common day, The sheltering mould of ages torn away, Now lie the little rooms, where once he took Long draughts of ease and let his fancy stray. Languid Maecenas left the roaring town To sip the Sabine in this friendly vale; Here Vergil, white of soul, oft sat him down To hear old Cervius spin his moral tale; Pert Davus, heedless of a growing frown, Plied here his argument without avail; While each new moon would rustic Phidyle stand To offer holy meal with pious hand, Pleasing her tiny gods with rosemary crown To bless the increase of her master's land. O! that far hence, in some dim Sabine glade, These stones, half buried in the kindly loam, -- Unnoted, undiscovered, unsurveyed, -- Might but afford the owl a darkling home! There might the thrush still warble undismayed, The timid woodland creatures boldly roam Through broken arch and plundered portico Which heard the poet's footstep long ago; That so no pang might touch thee, gentle Shade, This worse than ruined house of thine to know! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ODES I, 9. TO WINTER by QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS ODES III, 29 by QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS THE GOOD OLD DAYS OF 27 B.C. by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS THE REPLY OF Q. HORATIUS FLACCUS TO A ROMAN 'ROUND-ROBIN' by ALFRED AUSTIN AN EPISTLE TO A FRIEND PROPOSING A CORRECTION IN PASSAGE FROM HORACE by JOHN BYROM CEDES COEMPTIS SALTIBUS ... by JOHN BYROM NON EST MEUM, SI MUGIAT AFRICUS MALUS PROCELLIS ... by JOHN BYROM NONUMQUE PREMATUR IN ANNUM by JOHN BYROM NUNC ET CAMPUS, ET AREAEUM ... by JOHN BYROM BACCHYLIDES by GEORGE MEASON WHICHER FOR THE EIGHTH OF DECEMBER by GEORGE MEASON WHICHER FOR THE IDES OF MARCH (AVE VAESAR!) by GEORGE MEASON WHICHER |
|