LAWS OF VERSE,

OR,

Principles of Versification,

EXEMPLIFIED IN METRICAL TRANSLATIONS.

I. TRANSLATION OF HOR. OD. III. 29.

Originally printed for Recital and Distribution at a Penny Reading held in the National School Rooms, Eltham, December 22, 1869.

EXHIBITION OF THE PERDUALISTIC OR DICHOTOMOUS PLAN OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF HOR. CAR. III, 29.

1-8 Extroitive. 1-4 Invitation.

5-8 Exhortation.

1-16 The ODE.

1-2 Come into the country. 3-4 Leave Rome.

5-6 The season favours. 7-8 Throw aside care.

9-16 Introitive. 9-12 Impersonal. 13-16 Personal.

9-10 Life like a river. 11-12 The past indefeasible. 13-14 He defies fortune. 15-16 He has nothing to lose.

[The numbers refer to the order of the stanzas.]

And in like manner each of the eight duads above may be rendered into separate stanzas containing a single and distinct subject or image. It would of course be easy, and not uninstructive, to arrange this paradigm under the form of a tree bearing two stems, four branches, eight branchlets, and sixteen twigs or terminals.

B

26

Q. HORATII FLACCI CARMINUM

III. 29.

AD MAECENATEM.

TYRRHENA regum progenies, tibi
Non ante verso lene merum cado,
Cum flore, Maecenas, rosarum, et
Pressa tuis balanus capillis

27

AN ODE OF HORACE.

III. 29.

TO MAECENAS.

BIRTH of Tyrrhenian regal line!
In unstooped cask, a mellow brew
Roses and myrrh those locks of thine
Fresh pressed Maecenas! to bedew,

Long wait thee here! Shake off delay,
Nor spray-washed Tibur still gaze on
Nor Aefule's slope, nor heights survey
Of parricidal Telegon.

[5

Quit gorged Profusion, and the pile

[9

That soars to loftiest clouds akin;

Pause in admiring for awhile,

Thrice-happy Rome's, smoke, traffic, din.

Ofttimes the rich love change; walls bare

[13

And trim meals lacking purple woof

Have smoothed their wrinkled brow of care, 'Neath many a poor man's lowly roof.

Now Andromede's bright Sire doth show
Light erewhile hid: now Procyon's rays
Flash, and mad Leo's, as below
The Sun draws back dry summer days.'

[17