Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ODES 2, 14. EHEU FUGACES, by QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ODES 2, 14. EHEU FUGACES, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Ah, what can stay the flying years?
Last Line: "I'll drink a health,"" says he."
Alternate Author Name(s): Horace
Subject(s): Farewell; Memory; Time; Parting


Ah, what can stay the flying years?
Can goodness or can grace?
Time's furrow all too soon appears
To mar each mortal face.

There's not a wight of noble birth,
There's not a simple soul,
However stationed upon earth,
But owes the Boatman toll.

Why worry over war's alarm?
Why crouch when tempests rage?
The coat that keeps a body warm
Is not a hermitage.

Farewell to weans; farewell to wife;
Farewell to groves and glades:
Only the cypress, loathed in life,
Shall squire you to the shades.

And farewell cellar's goodly hoard—
A boon to legatee:
"Put the best bottle on the board;
I'll drink a health," says he.





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