His Monument

Horace: Book III, Ode 30 "Exegi monumentum aere perennius---" The monument that I have built is durable as brass, And loftier than the Pyramids which mock the years that pass. No blizzard can destroy it, nor furious rain corrode-- Remember, I'm the bard who built the first Horatian Ode. I shall not altogether die; a part of me's immortal. A part of me shall never pass the mortuary portal; And when I die my fame shall stand the nitric test of time-- The fame of me of lowly birth, who built the lofty rhyme! Ay, fame shall be my portion when no trace there is of me, For I first madeÆolian songs the songs of Italy. Accept I pray, Melpomene, my modest mead of praise, And crown my thinning, graying locks with wreathes of Delphic bays!