Classic Poem

ODE 5

J OVE we call King, whose bolts rive heaven:
Then a god's presence shall be felt
In Caesar, with whose power the Celt
And Parthian stout in vain have striven.

Could Crassus' men wed alien wives,
And greet, as sons-in-law, the foe?
In the foes' land (oh Romans, oh
Lost honour!) end, in shame, their lives,

'Neath the Mede's sway? They, Marsians and
Apulians — shields and rank and name
Forgot, and that undying flame —
And Jove still reign, and Rome still stand?

This thing wise Regulus could presage:
He brooked not base conditions; he
Set not a precedent to be
The ruin of a coming age:

" No, " cried, " let the captives die,
Spare not. I saw Rome's ensigns hung
In Punic shrines; with sabres, flung
Down by Rome's sons ere blood shed. I

" Saw our free citizens with hands
Fast pinioned; and, through portals now
Flung wide, our soldiers troop to plough,
As once they trooped to waste, the lands.

" " Bought by our gold, our men will fight
But keener." What? To shame would you
Add loss? As wool, its natural hue
Once gone, may not be painted white;

" True Valour, from her seat once thrust,
Is not replaced by meaner wares
Do stags, delivered from the snares,
Fight? Then shall he fight, who did trust.

" His life to foes who spoke a lie:
And his sword shatter Carthage yet,
Around whose arms the cords have met,
A sluggard soul, that feared to die!

" Life, howe'er bought, he treasured: he
Deemed war a thing of trade. Ah fie! —
Great art thou, Carthage — towerest high
O'er shamed and ruined Italy! "

As one uncitizen'd — men said —
He puts his wife's pure kiss away,
His little children; and did lay
Stern in the dust his manly head:

Till those unequalled words had lent
Strength to the faltering sires of Rome;
Then from his sorrow-stricken home
Went forth to glorious banishment.

Yet knew he, what wild tortures lay
Before him: knowing, put aside
His kin, his countrymen — who tried
To bar his path, and bade his stay:

He might be hastening on his way, —
A lawyer freed from business — down
To green Venafrum, or a town
Of Sparta, for a holiday.