Love

Horace, Book I, Ode 19 (translation)

by Thomas Chatterton 1752–1770

Translated by Thomas Chatterton (1770) · From Poetical Works, ed. Skeat (1875)

Love

Yes! I am caught, my melting soul
To Venus bends without control,
I pour the empassioned sigh.
Ye Gods! what throbs my bosom move,
Responsive to the glance of love,
That beams from Stella's eye.

Oh, how divinely fair that face,
And what a sweet resistless grace
On every feature dwells!
And on those features all the while
The softness of each frequent smile
Her sweet good-nature tells.

O Love! I'm thine — no more I sing
Heroic deeds — the sounding string
Forgets its wonted strains;
For aught but love the lyre's unstrung,
Love melts and trembles on my tongue,
And thrills in every vein.

Invoking the propitious skies,
The green-sod altar let us rise,
Let holy incense smoke:
And if we pour the sparkling wine,
Sweet, gentle peace may still be mine,
This dreadful chain be broke!

MLA

Chatterton, Thomas. “Horace, Book I, Ode 19 (translation).” Translated by Thomas Chatterton. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/chatterton/95/.

Chicago

Chatterton, Thomas. “Horace, Book I, Ode 19 (translation).” Translated by Thomas Chatterton. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/chatterton/95/.

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