Explore "Horace to Melpomene" by Eugene Field on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Lofty and enduring is the monument I've reared, -- / Come, tempests, with your bitterness assailing; / And thou, corrosive blasts of time, by all things mortal feared, / Thy buffets and thy rage are unavailing!
I shall not altogether die; by far my greater part / Shall mock man's common fate in realms infernal; / My works shall live as tributes to my genius and my art, -- / My works shall be my monument eternal!
While this great Roman empire stands and gods protect our fanes, / Mankind with grateful hearts shall tell the story, / How one most lowly born upon the parched Apulian plains / First raised the native lyric muse to glory.
Assume, revered Melpomene, the proud estate I've won, / And, with thine own dear hand the meed supplying, / Bind thou about the forehead of thy celebrated son / The Delphic laurel-wreath of fame undying!