POETRY.

HORACE—BOOK IV., ODE 4.

[This noble Ode, if composed, as some suppose, at the instance of Augustus, manifests nothing of the feebleness which so often charac- terises poems written to order. Comer is only mentioned in it as the father of Drusus by adoption. Drums and Tiberius were sons of Livia and Claudius Nero, and step-sons of Augustus, who educated them, and declared them heirs to the throne. When the Vindeliei, a powerful German tribe, were overthrown by Drums (B.C. 15), he was only twenty-three years of age. Hence, in the two fine similes with which this poem commences, he is compared to the young eagle, and the lion-cab, jam lacte depulsum, and the Barbarian troops are described as caterer consiiiis juvenis reoictr. In lines full of beauty and philosophic thought, Horace traces back the high qualities of Drusus to three of his ancestors who, nearly two hundred years before, had delivered Italy from the Punic invasion by the defeat and death of Hasdrabal on the Metauras, as he led a large army to the relief of his brother Hannibal. After describing the restoration of religion and social order sub- sequent to that victory, be records the despairing speech of Hannibal to his soldiers when about to retreat from Italy for the defence of Carthage. There is a stronger dramatic element in Horace than, perhaps, in any other lyric poet. He saw the dramatic propriety of making Hannibal extenuate his own defeat by extolling the invincible prowess of the Romans. Horace, poet and courtier, was guided by a true instinct in the composition of the great Carthaginian's speech. He preserved the dramatic unity of the poem, and gratified the Roman people by putting the eulogy of Roman valour into the month of the first soldier of the age and the most successful enemy of Rome. Four lines which occur in the fifth and sixth quatrains of the original are omitted from this translation. Franke and other able commentators believe them to be an interpolation. Others— as the late Lord Lytton—think that they were indeed written by Horace, but that they are a light and satirical allusion to Bone ephemeral absurdity the memory of which has not survived. How- ever this may be, they are inconsistent with the stately grandeur of the Ode, and are unintelligible to the motern reader.]

WALED MINISTRUM.

LIRE the fierce bird, with thunder-laden wing, That bore to Jove his gold-haired Ganymed, And from the Monarch dread Of gods and men obtained supreme dominion O'er all that fly ;—lured by the breath of Spring, A fledgeling first, he spreads his fluttering pinion ; Soon, fired by youth, impelled by inborn might, Through cloudless skies he wings his daring flight; He soars, he swoops, and on the fold descends ;

Or, hungry for the fight, With sanguine beak the writhing dragon rends :—

Or, as the Lion, from his tawny dam Late weaned, on some glad mead descries The roe-deer, or the unsuspecting lamb

Contented grazing ; —on, with flashing eyes, Annange new-fleshed, he bounds ; —the victim dies

So Druens swooping from the Rluetian snows Smote the Vindelici ; nor helm, nor sword, Nor Amazonian battle-axe could ward From Roman vengeance Rome's barbaric foes ; Victors in every field till now Suppliant before a Roman youth they bow. They know at last what hearts undaunted, fed Beneath the roof of an auspicious home, What Nero's sons, by Cattier bred With all a father's love, can do for Rome.

The strong and good beget the brave and true : Deep in the cavern of the infant's breast The father's nature lurks,jpd lives anew

The steer, the generous steed, inherit Parental beauty, strength, unconquered spirit : The stock-dove springs not from the Eagle's neat.

But inborn virtue still requires Culture to shape what Nature's self inspires ; Leave it unformed, unaided, guilt and shame Shall stain the noblest heart, the moat illustrious name.

How deep the debt your fathers owed, 0 Rome ! to Nero's race, to Nero's blood !

Witness Metaurns' purple flood; Witness that day when through the clouds of night Refulgent burst, a living light, That glorious Sun which smiled to see

A grateful Nation's jubilee,— For Hasdrubal lies low, and Rome again is free !

Tu.

Through the fair fields of Italy once more The people grew : the voice of toil was heard : And where the Punic conqueror

So long o'er smoking plains his war-horse spurred, Fierce as the flame that wraps the forest trees, Or storms careering o'er Sicilian seas, Once more the Nation's heart awakened stirred,

And in the desecrated Inns

Adoring Rome beheld her banished Gods again.

van.

Then spoke perfidious Hannibal,— " Unwarlike deer, the wolf's predestined food, We seek a foe 'twere triumph to elude, That race heroic which of yore Their Gods, their babes, their aged fathers bore From Ilion's burning wall Through Tuscan billows to Ansonia's shore So the broad Oak that spreads its dusky shade On Algidus, shorn by the woodman's knife, Wounded and lopped, bourgeons again to life, And draws, refreebt, new vigour from the blade.

Great Nation, fierce as Hydra when she sprung Severed yet scathless, full on Hercules !

Great Roman people, strong As Colchian monsters, Theban prodigies !

Plunge them 'neath Ocean's lowest depths,—they rise

More bright, more glorious fell them to the Earth,— They start to life : the vanquished victor dies ;

And Roman dames for aye blazon their husbands' worth.

Tidings of victory I send no more. I send a wailing cry :— Our Punic name, our hope, our fortune, all Have died with HasdrabaL"

Valiant and wise, 'neath Jove's benignant care, What man can do the Clandian race shall dare ; They, too, with counsel sage shall staunch the wounds of war.

STEPHEN E. DE VELE.