THE IMMORTALITY OF VERSE (ODES, IV, 9)
by: Horace (Quintus Horatius
Flaccus) (65-8 B.C.)
- EST you
should think that verse shall die,
- Which sounds the silver Thames along,
- Taught on the wings of truth to fly
- Above the reach of vulgar song;
-
- Though daring Milton sits sublime,
- In Spenser native Muses play;
- Nor yet shall Waller yield to time,
- Nor pensive Cowley's mortal lay.
-
- Sages and chiefs long since had birth
- Ere Caesar was, or Newton named;
- These raised new empires o'er the earth,
- And those, new heavens and systems framed.
- Vain was the chief's, the sage's pride!
- They had no poet, and they died.
- In vain they schemed, in vain they bled!
- They had no poet, and are dead.
This English translation of "The
Immortality of Verse" was composed by Alexander Pope (1688-1744). |
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