Imitations of Horace

"Shut, shut the door, good John! fatigued, I said; Tie up the knocker! say I'm sick, I'm dead."

"Fire in each eye, and papers in each hand, They rave, recite, and madden round the land."

"E'en Sunday shines no Sabbath day to me."

"Is there a parson much bemused in beer, A maudlin poetess, a rhyming peer, A clerk foredoom'd his father's soul to cross, Who pens a stanza when he should engross?"

"Friend to my life, which did not you prolong, The world had wanted many an idle song."

"Obliged by hunger and request of friends."

"Fired that the house rejects him, "'Sdeath! I 'll print it, And shame the fools.""

"No creature smarts so little as a fool."

"Destroy his fib, or sophistry — in vain! The creature's at his dirty work again."

"As yet a child, nor yet a fool to fame, I lisp'd in numbers, for the numbers came."

"This long disease, my life."

"Pretty! in amber to observe the forms Of hairs, or straws, or dirt, or grubs, or worms! The things, we know, are neither rich nor rare, But wonder how the devil they got there."

"Means not, but blunders round about a meaning; And he whose fustian 's so sublimely bad, It is not poetry, but prose run mad."

"Were there one whose fires True Genius kindles, and fair Fame inspires, Blessed with each talent, and each art to please, And born to write, converse, and live with ease; Should such a man, too fond to rule alone, Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne."

"View him with scornful, yet with jealous eyes, And hate for arts that caused himself to rise; Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And, without sneering, teach the rest to sneer; Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike; Alike reserved to blame or to commend, A tim'rous foe, and a suspicious friend; Dreading e'en fools, by flatterers besieged, And so obliging that he ne'er obliged; Like Cato, give his little Senate laws, And sit attentive to his own applause."

"Who but must laugh, if such a man there be? Who would not weep, if Atticus were he?"

""On wings of winds came flying all abroad"."

"Oh let me live my own, and die so too (To live and die is all I have to do)! Maintain a poet's dignity and ease, And see what friends, and read what books I please."

"Cursed be the verse, how well so e'er it flow, That tends to make one worthy man my foe."

"Let Sporus tremble — "What? that thing of silk, Sporus, that mere white curd of ass's milk? Satire or sense, alas! can Sporus feel? Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?""

"Yet let me flap this bug with gilded wings, This painted child of dirt, that stinks and stings; Whose buzz the witty and the fair annoys, Yet wit ne'er tastes, and beauty ne'er enjoys."

"Eternal smiles his emptiness betray, As shallow streams run dimpling all the way."

"Wit that can creep and pride that licks the dust."

"That not in fancy's maze he wander'd long, But stoop'd to truth, and moraliz'd his song."

"Unlearned, he knew no schoolman's subtle art, No language, but the language of the heart."

"Me let the tender office long engage To rock the cradle of reposing age; With lenient arts extend a mother's breath, Make languor smile, and smooth the bed of death; Explore the thought, explain the asking eye, And keep awhile one parent from the sky."

"Lord Fanny spins a thousand such a day."

"Satire's my weapon, but I'm too discreet To run amuck, and tilt at all I meet."

"But touch me, and no minister so sore; Whoe'er offends at some unlucky time Slides into verse, and hitches in a rhyme, Sacred to ridicule his whole life long, And the sad burden of some merry song."

"Bare the mean heart that lurks behind a star."

"There St. John mingles with my friendly bowl The feast of reason and the flow of soul."

"For I, who hold sage Homer's rule the best, Welcome the coming, speed the going guest."

"I've often wished that I had clear, For life, six hundred pounds a year; A handsome house to lodge a friend, A river at my garden's end, A terrace walk, and half a rood Of land set out to plant a wood."

"Give me again my hollow tree, A crust of bread, and liberty."

"A patriot is a fool in ev'ry age."

"Laugh then at any but at fools or foes; These you but anger, and you mend not those. Laugh at your friends, and if your friends are sore, So much the better, you may laugh the more."

"Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame."

"All, all look up with reverential awe At crimes that 'scape or triumph o'er the law."

"To Berkeley every virtue under heaven."

"Never gallop Pegasus to death."

"When the brisk minor pants for twenty-one."

"Not to go back is somewhat to advance, And men must walk, at least, before they dance."

"Here, Wisdom calls: "Seek Virtue first, be bold! As Gold to Silver, Virtue is to Gold.""

"He's armed without that's innocent within."

"Get place and wealth, if possible, with grace; If not, by any means get wealth and place."

"Above all Greek, above all Roman fame."

"Authors, like coins, grow dear as they grow old: It is the rust we value, not the gold."

"The people's voice is odd, It is, and is not, the voice of God."

"The mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease."

"One simile that solitary shines In the dry desert of a thousand lines."