Oh, daughter, lovelier than your lovely mother, Whatever punishment you may desire Give my offending verses; in the fire Throw them, please you, or in the Adriatic. Not Dindymene, no, nor even Apollo...
"One time when I was pleasing to you, Lydia, And when no other youth, preferred to me, Your snowy neck could with his arms encircle, Then happier I than Persia's King may be." ...
For thee he thought, The Greek, who by the sea Lay in his lithe-limbed grace, as dreamily He gazed upon the sky begemmed with stars, And pondered mysteries. Ah, few the bars...
Crinkled oak-leaves, twinkling in the sun, Splashed by midday showers, dripping cold - Serrate oak-leaves, silvered by the sun That has brushed yon dull brown grass with gold. ...
God's mean and careless servant - while I wander Deep in the madness of Philosophy, - Now backward I must set my sail, and ponder Where my forsaken course retraced shall be....
On every bush are roses blooming, everywhere the nightingale To his love again is warbling plaintively his oft-told tale. Now within our balmy garden dances the tall cypress tree,...
A new year dawning on a warring world! And many fight, and many pray for peace; But yet the roar of battle will not cease, Still man against his brother man is hurled. ...
The hardy youth, my friends, in bitter warfare To narrow poverty must learn to bend, And, for his spear a horseman to be dreaded, Courageous Parthians into flight must send....
What prays the poet of enshrined Apollo? What is he asking for with lifted hands, Pouring a fresh libation from his flagon? - Not fertile crop from rich Sardinian lands, -...
With kindly thought I'd give, Oh Censorinus, Bowls and bronze vases pleasing to each friend; Tripods I'd offer, prizes of brave Grecians, And not the worst of gifts to you I'd send...
Ah Chloe, like a fawn you now elude me, Seeking its timid dam on lonely hills, Its dam who not without an idle tremor At breezes in the forest thrills. For if before the breeze the bushes quiver...
Oh, Fuscus, he whose life is pure and upright, Wants not the Moorish javelin nor the bow, Nor may he need the quiver, heavy laden With arrows poisoned for the lurking foe....
Seek not to learn - Leucono', - a mortal may not know - What term of life on you or me our deities bestow. The Babylonian soothsayer consult not; better bear...
M'cenas, scion of Tyrrhenian rulers, A jar, as yet unpierced, of mellow wine Long waits thee here, with balm for thee made ready And blooming roses in thy locks to twine. ...
Oh, him whom at birth you with favor regarded Melpomene! never an Isthmian game Shall render renowned, though he's skilled as a boxer, Nor shall a swift horse lead him onward to fame....
Ah! Unhappy are the maidens, who love's game are kept from playing, Nor in mellow wine may wash away their cares; Who, scared by scolding uncles' tongues, their terror are displaying, -...
Oh! Ship of State! fresh billows to sea will bear thee back, Then turn about and bravely toward the harbor tack, Thou see'st that thy naked sides defending oarsmen lack. ...
Lately was I to gentle maidens suited, And not without some glory did contend, But now my weapons and my lute made useless For contests, on this wall I will suspend,...
"'Tis but a common thing," one coldly said, "Nay, call it not a flower - this little weed, If plucking it, I kill it, root and seed - Better the world were if it lay there dead." ...