Horace

Paul Quarrie

The poet Tennyson hailed the lines of the Odes as 
Jewels five-words-long 
That on the stretch'd forefinger of Time 
Sparkle for ever.

Poems

Horace saw the death of the Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire, and was personally acquainted with the emperor Augustus and the poet Virgil. He was famous during his lifetime, and continued to be posthumously, for his odes and epodes, his satires and epistles, and for Ars Poetica. His lyric poems have been translated into many languages, by an array of famous poets including Jonson, Milton, Dryden, Pope, Cowper, A. E. Houseman, Ezra Pound, Louis McNeice, Robert Lowell--and even Queen Elizabeth I and the Victorian prime minister Gladstone. 
Also included are excerpts from Ars poetica (The Art of Poetry), an influential work of literary criticism, and the Carmen saeculare (Secular Hymn), a prayer to Apollo commissioned by Augustus for public performance. 
 
Horace's injunction to "seize the day" has echoed through the ages. This anthology of superb English translations will show how Horace has permeated English literature for five centuries.

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Horace

Praise for Horace

The poet Tennyson hailed the lines of the Odes as
Jewels five-words-long
That on the stretch'd forefinger of Time
Sparkle for ever.

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Praise for Horace

The poet Tennyson hailed the lines of the Odes as Jewels five-words-long That on the stretch'd forefinger of Time Sparkle for ever.

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter

The poet Tennyson hailed the lines of the Odes as
Jewels five-words-long
That on the stretch'd forefinger of Time
Sparkle for ever.