A
female
age
41-50,
*ourney74
writes:[Moderator note: these verses were written by Horace.] My boyfriend wrote give me this poem but i dont really understand what it means. Can anyone explain to me this poem by stanza?Painters and poets our indulgence claim,Their daring equal, and their art the same."I own th' indulgence such I give and take;But not through Nature's sacred rules to break,Monstrous to mix the cruel and the kind,Serpents with birds, and lambs with tigers joined.---------- But when victorious Rome enlarged her state,And broader walls inclosed th' imperial seat,Soon as with wine grown dissolutely gay,Without restraint she cheered the festal day;Then poesy in looser numbers moved,And music in licentious tones improved; Such ever is the taste, when clown and wit,Rustic and critic, fill the crowded pit.----------Make the Greek authors your supreme delight;Read them by day, and study them by night. "And yet our sires with joy could Plautus hear,Gay were his jests, his numbers charmed their ear."Let me not say too lavishly they praised,But sure their judgment was full cheaply pleased,If you or I with taste are haply blessed,To know a clownish from a courtly jest;If skilful to discern when formed with easeThe modulated sounds are taught to please.------------- Poets would profit or delight mankind,And with the pleasing have th' instruction joinedShort be the precept, which with ease is gainedBy docile minds, and forcefully retained.If in dull length your moral is expressed,The tedious wisdom overflows the breast.Would you divert? The probable maintain,Nor force us to belief the monstrous scene,That shows a child, by a fell witch devoured,Dragged from her entrails, and to life restored.Grave age approves the solid and the wise;Gay youth from too austere a drama flies;Profit and pleasure, then, to mix with art,To inform the judgment, nor offend the heart,Shall gain all votes; to booksellers shall raiseNo trivial fortune, and across the seasTo distant nations spread the writer's fame,And with immortal honours crown his name.------------- Would you to fame a promised work produce,Be delicate and cautious in the useAnd choice of words; nor shall you fail of praise,When nicely joining two known words you raiseA third unknown. A new-discovered themeFor those, unheard in ancient times, may claimA just and ample licence, which, if usedWith fair discretion, never is refused. ------------ Your style should an important difference makeWhen heroes, gods, or awful sages speak; When florid youth, whom gay desires inflame; A busy servant, or a wealthy dame A merchant, wandering with incessant toil,Or he, who cultivates the verdant soil;But if in foreign realms you fix your scene,Their genius, customs, dialects maintain. -------------- The man who knows not how with art to wieldThe sportive weapons of the martial field,The bounding ball, round quoit, or whirling troque,Will not the laughter of the crowd provoke:But every desperate blockhead dares to write Why not? his fortune's large to make a knight;The man's freeborn; perhaps of gentle strain;His character and manners pure from stain.But thou, dear Piso, never tempt the muse,If wisdom's goddess shall her aid refuse;And when you write, let candid Metius hear,14Or try your labours on your father's ear,Or even on mine; but let them not come forthTill the ninth ripening year mature their worth.You may correct what in your closet lies:If published, it irrevocably flies.
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Fancy yourself as an agony aunt? Add your answer to this question! A
reader, anonymous, writes (25 August 2009): No offense, but I'm not sure you've come to the right place for interpretation of classical Roman poetry. You might do better by Googling.
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