Classic and Contemporary Poetry
UT TUTO AB ATRIS CORPORE VIPERIS ..., by JOHN BYROM Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Horace, an infant, (here he interweaves Last Line: "for bears read goats""pro ursis lege hircis" Subject(s): Babies; Horace (65-8 B.c.); Poetry & Poets; Infants | ||||||||
HORACE, an infant, (here he interweaves In rambling ode, where no design coheres) By fabled stock-doves cover'd up with leaves, "Kept safe from black-skinn'd vipers and from bears:" But passing by the incoherent ode, I ask the critics "where the bears abode?" The leaves, indeed, that stock-doves could convey, Would be but poor defence against the snakes, And sleeping boy be still an easy prey To black pervaders of the thorny brakes; The bears, I doubt too, would have smelt him out, If there had been such creatures thereabout. The snakes were black; the bears, I guess, were white, (Or what the vulgar commonly call bulls) Bears had there been.Another word is right, That has escap'd the criticising skulls, Who suffer bears as quietly to pass As if the bard had been of Lapland class. A word where sense and sound do so agree, That I shall spare to speak in its defence; And leave absurdity, so plain to see, With due correction, to your own good sense; 'Tis this, in short, in these Horatian verses, "For bears read goats"pro URSIS lege HIRCIS | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A POET TO HIS BABY SON by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON BABYHOOD by ELIZABETH AKERS ALLEN INFANCY by EDMUND JOHN ARMSTRONG BALLAD OF THE LAYETTE by WAYNE KOESTENBAUM A TOAST FOR LITTLE IRON MIKE by PAUL MARIANI THE PAMPERING OF LEORA by THYLIAS MOSS ONE FOR ALL NEWBORNS by THYLIAS MOSS IN THE THRIVING SEASON by LISEL MUELLER A HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS DAY (2) by JOHN BYROM |
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