To Maecenas. Iii-29 (from The Odes Of Horace) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCB DEDE CFDF EGHG IDID JKLM NNEN OPQP NRSR TUNU DDDD UENE INUN CNNN NDDD ENIN V| M cenas scion of Tyrrhenian rulers | A |
| A jar as yet unpierced of mellow wine | B |
| Long waits thee here with balm for thee made ready | C |
| And blooming roses in thy locks to twine | B |
| - | |
| No more delay nor always look with favor | D |
| The sloping fields of sula upon | E |
| Why gaze so long on ever marshy Tibur | D |
| Near by the mount of murderer Telegon | E |
| - | |
| Give up thy luxury it palls upon thee | C |
| Thy tower that reaches yonder lofty cloud | F |
| Cease to admire the smoke the wealth the uproar | D |
| And all that well hath made our Rome so proud | F |
| - | |
| Sometimes a change is grateful to the rich man | E |
| A simple meal beneath a humble roof | G |
| Has often smoothed from care the furrowed forehead | H |
| Though unadorned that home with purple woof | G |
| - | |
| Bright Cepheus now his long hid fire is showing | I |
| Now flames on high the angry lion star | D |
| Now Procyon rages and the sun revolving | I |
| Brings back the thirsty season from afar | D |
| - | |
| Seeking a cooling stream the weary shepherd | J |
| His languid flock leads to the shady wood | K |
| Where rough Sylvanus reigns yet by the brookside | L |
| No truant breeze disturbs the solitude | M |
| - | |
| Ah who but thee is busy now with statecraft | N |
| Thou plannest for Rome's weal disquieted | N |
| Lest warring Scythian Bactrian or Persian | E |
| Should'st plunge the city into awful dread | N |
| - | |
| A prudent deity in pitchy darkness | O |
| The issue of futurity conceals | P |
| And smiles when man beyond the right of mortals | Q |
| His fear about the time to come reveals | P |
| - | |
| Thou should'st concern thee only with the present | N |
| All else progresses as the river flows | R |
| Which gliding at one time in middle channel | S |
| Toward the Tuscan Sea unruffled goes | R |
| - | |
| Or at another time herds trees and houses | T |
| And broken rocks to one destruction drags | U |
| When wild the flood provokes the quiet current | N |
| With noise from neighboring woods and distant crags | U |
| - | |
| Happy he lives and of himself is master | D |
| That man who can at night with truth declare | D |
| I have lived to day to morrow let the Father | D |
| Make as he will my sky or dark or fair | D |
| - | |
| It is not his to render vain and worthless | U |
| My happy past the bliss has dearer grown | E |
| That the fleet footed hour carried with it | N |
| The joys that once have been are still my own | E |
| - | |
| Now upon me again on others smiling | I |
| Fortune rejoices in her savage trade | N |
| Of shifting thus at will uncertain honors | U |
| As stubbornly her mocking game is played | N |
| - | |
| I praise her when she stays but if she leave me | C |
| Fluttering her airy wings in hasty flight | N |
| I yield her what she gave and wrapped in virtue | N |
| In dowerless Poverty find my delight | N |
| - | |
| Although the mast may crack beneath the South wind | N |
| I will not rush with many a doleful prayer | D |
| To barter thus my vows lest all my treasure | D |
| From Tyre and Cyprus should become a share | D |
| - | |
| Of what the greedy sea has in possession | E |
| Nay then protected in my two oared boat | N |
| With favoring winds and with twin Pollux guiding | I |
| Safe through the gean tempests I will float | N |
| - | |
| This version won in the Sargent Prize offered annually to students of Harvard University and Radcliffe College | V |
Helen Leah Reed
(1)
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