Classic Poem

What man or hero is it now thy choice,
Clio, with lyre or high-pitched flute to sing?
What god? Whose name shall Echo's merry voice
Back from the mountains fling

On shady tracts of Helicon, or height
Of Pindus or cool Haemus, whence with song
Orpheus could draw the woods in headlong flight
About his path to throng,

Skilled by his mother's art the course to stay
Of rivers, and of winds to check the speed,
And by the charm in tuneful strings that lay
The listening oaks to lead?

The Father first shall hold his wonted place,
Who ruleth all things human and divine,
And doth to sea and land and starry space
Their seasons due assign.

From whom nought issues of more potent name
Nor lives his like or second in degree;
Yet Pallas after him makes good her claim
The next in rank to be.

Nor, valiant Liber, will I pass thee by,
Or, maiden, thee, of savage beasts the foe,
Nor Phoebus dreaded for the shafts that fly
From his unerring bow.

Alcides too I'll sing, and Leda's pair
Of twins in horsemanship and boxing known
Preëminent. If their star its visage fair
To mariners have shown,

Back from the rocks the frothy spindrift flows,
Winds drop, clouds flee away, each angry crest
Vailing the billows o'er the sea repose
In peace at their behest.

Then shall I Romulus next commemorate,
The peaceful reign of Numa, or the time
Of Tarquin girt with the proud rods of state,
Or Cato's death sublime?

To Scauri, Regulus, Paullus who threw
His noble life away at Cannae's rout
My grateful Muse shall render honour due,
And to that captain stout,

Fabricius, Curius of the shaggy head,
Camillus, whom on their ancestral farms
In cottage homes hard poverty had bred
To quit them well in arms.

As a fair tree through lapse unmarked of years
Aye grows Marcellus' fame. The Julian star
Shines forth as when 'mid lesser lights appears
The moon more brilliant far.

O Father of mankind and mighty Lord
From Saturn sprung, reign thou on high and let
Great Caesar, whom the Fates have made thy ward,
As viceroy here be set.

Whether from Latium Parthians he repel,
And vanquished lead in triumph duly won,
Or whether Indians and Chinese who dwell
Next to the rising sun,

He under thee shall o'er the world entire
Rule justly. Thine shall be the heavens to shake
With thundering car, and black with scathing fire
Polluted groves to make.