O ship, a new wave thrusts you back To the sea. What are you doing? Rush hard Into port! Can you not see that You are stripped of oars, Mast shivered by fast African winds, Yardarm groaning? Without rigging Your hull cannot withstand The imperious sea! Your sails are torn,…
Ode 1.5 What slender boy bathed in a flowing smell Courts you, Pyrrha, on roses Within some pleasant cave? Whom do you braid that golden hair for, Simple and neat? Ah, how often He’ll weep at how faith and gods change, And he’ll marvel, unaccustomed, At this rough sea that’s…
Here’s a put-down poem by one of my favorites, Catullus, one of a group of young Roman poets who revolutionized poetry in the 1st century BCE: XLII Come, Hendecasyllables, come one and all, From everywhere, as many as you may be, For an ugly, skanky slut thinks I’m a joke…
