Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


EPODES: 10. AGAINST MAEVIUS, A POET by QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS

First Line: AND ART THOU SHIPP'D, FRIEND DOGGEREL! - GET THEE GONE
Last Line: I CAN BE CIVIL TOO.
Subject(s): POETRY & POETS;

AND art thou shipp'd, friend Doggerel! -- get thee gone,
Thou pest of Helicon.
Now for an hurricane to bang thy sides,
Curst wood, in which he rides!
An east-wind tear thy cables, crack thy oars,
While every billow roars.
With such a wind let all the Ocean swell
As wafted Noll to Hell:
No friendly star o'er all the Sea appear
While thou be'st there;
Nor kinder destiny there mayst thou meet
Than the proud Grecian Fleet,
When Pallas did their Admiral destroy
Return'd from ruin'd Troy.
Methinks I see the mariners faint, and thee
Look somewhat scurvily:
Thou call'st on Jove, as if great Jove had time
To mind thy Grub-street Rhyme,
When the proud waves their heads to Heav'n do rear
Himself scarce free from fear:
Well! If the Gods should thy wreck'd carcase share
To beasts or fowls of th' air,
I'll sacrifice to them, that they may know
I can be civil too.



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