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The works of Horace, translated into verse

With a prose interpretation, for the help of students. And occasional notes. By Christopher Smart ... In four volumes

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ODE VIII. TO MARTIUS CENSORINUS.
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109

ODE VIII. TO MARTIUS CENSORINUS.

There is nothing that can immortalize rather than the works of poets.

Goblets to every friend of gold,
And statues of Corinthian mould,
In gratitude I had bestow'd,
Attending to the present mode;
And tripods too, which were the mead,
That Greece her valiant sons decreed;
Nor shou'd you have the meanest prize,
Were I enrich'd with such supplies,
As Scopas or Parrhasius send,
The one his colours skill'd to blend;
The one, whose excellence is known
To cut a god or man in stone:
But I keep no toy-treasures hid,
Nor do you want them if I did:
Your taste is of a nobler flight,
And poetry is your delight;
Which I can furnish, and assign
The merit of the gift divine.
Not marbles, that the public place
With long inscriptions on the base,

111

By which returns beyond the grave
New life and spirit to the brave;
Not Hannibal what time he fled,
With threats retorted on his head;
Not impious Carthage, all a-flame,
To greater brightness raise his name,
(Who, when from conquest he return'd,
The title Africanus earn'd)
Than he, who those achievements sung,
Ev'n Ennius from Calabria sprung;
Nor, if our writings shou'd be mute,
Wou'd benefit receive its fruit.
What wou'd the acts of him the son
Of Mars, and what had Ilia done;
If silence, envious of renown,
Had borne their matchless merits down?
The virtue, votes, and pow'rful word
Of bards, have Eacus transferr'd
From Stygian darkness, to the isles
Where happiness eternal smiles.
The muse excepts against the doom
Of meritorious men in Rome.
The muse can bless you to the skies—
'Twas thus brave Hercules cou'd rise
To taste with Jove, a welcome guest,
Celestial fare amongst the rest.

113

'Tis thus the fam'd twin-stars obtain,
To save ships shatter'd on the main;
Thus, ivy-crown'd, the god of wine
Gives furth'rance to each fair design.