Horace in English

the long version

From the sixteenth century to the present day, Horace (65-8 BC) has been more frequently translated into English than any other classical poet. His work has made so deep an imprint on our poetry that this volume can be read as a map of the changes and developments in English verse form. Horace in English seeks to reach through translation to Roman Horace, the friend of Virgil and Maecenas, while at the same time presenting a many faceted portrait of English Horace, moralist, love poet, patriot, ironist, wit, convivial companion, everyman's poet for all occasions. This anthology offers generous selections from the Odes and Epodes, Satires and Epistles in translations and imitations from Jonson, Milton, Dryden and Pope to Hopkins, Housman, Pound, C. H. Sisson and David Ferry. A final section, 'Coda', contains some original poems that would not have been written but for Horace by poets as different as Marvell and Prior, Kipling and Frost.