THE LAST ODE

THE LAST ODE

(Nov. 27,B.C.8.)

Horace, Ode 31, Bk. V.

As watchers couched beneath a Bantine oak,Hearing the dawn-wind stir,Know that the present strength of night is brokeThough no dawn threaten herTill dawn’s appointed hour—so Virgil died,Aware of change at hand, and prophesiedChange upon all the Eternal Gods had madeAnd on the Gods alike—Fated as dawn but, as the dawn, delayedTill the just hour should strike—A Star new-risen above the living and dead;And the lost shades that were our loves restoredAs lovers, and for ever. So he said;Having received the word....Maecenas waits me on the Esquiline:Thither to-night go I....And shall this dawn restore us, Virgil mine,To dawn? Beneath what sky?THE GARDENER

As watchers couched beneath a Bantine oak,Hearing the dawn-wind stir,Know that the present strength of night is brokeThough no dawn threaten herTill dawn’s appointed hour—so Virgil died,Aware of change at hand, and prophesiedChange upon all the Eternal Gods had madeAnd on the Gods alike—Fated as dawn but, as the dawn, delayedTill the just hour should strike—A Star new-risen above the living and dead;And the lost shades that were our loves restoredAs lovers, and for ever. So he said;Having received the word....Maecenas waits me on the Esquiline:Thither to-night go I....And shall this dawn restore us, Virgil mine,To dawn? Beneath what sky?

As watchers couched beneath a Bantine oak,Hearing the dawn-wind stir,Know that the present strength of night is brokeThough no dawn threaten herTill dawn’s appointed hour—so Virgil died,Aware of change at hand, and prophesied

As watchers couched beneath a Bantine oak,

Hearing the dawn-wind stir,

Know that the present strength of night is broke

Though no dawn threaten her

Till dawn’s appointed hour—so Virgil died,

Aware of change at hand, and prophesied

Change upon all the Eternal Gods had madeAnd on the Gods alike—Fated as dawn but, as the dawn, delayedTill the just hour should strike—

Change upon all the Eternal Gods had made

And on the Gods alike—

Fated as dawn but, as the dawn, delayed

Till the just hour should strike—

A Star new-risen above the living and dead;And the lost shades that were our loves restoredAs lovers, and for ever. So he said;Having received the word....Maecenas waits me on the Esquiline:Thither to-night go I....And shall this dawn restore us, Virgil mine,To dawn? Beneath what sky?

A Star new-risen above the living and dead;

And the lost shades that were our loves restored

As lovers, and for ever. So he said;

Having received the word....

Maecenas waits me on the Esquiline:Thither to-night go I....And shall this dawn restore us, Virgil mine,To dawn? Beneath what sky?

Maecenas waits me on the Esquiline:

Thither to-night go I....

And shall this dawn restore us, Virgil mine,

To dawn? Beneath what sky?


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