The lasting monument for the last day of Poetry Month

The Latin poet Horace wrote this as the final poem of the third book of his Odes. (He later published a fourth book. We had one of those poems earlier.)

Horace’s poetry has been the inspiration for poets through the ages. Dante, Dryden, Housman, Yeats and Auden all cribbed from him. He was the one who said “carpe diem”–“Seize the day,” and many other lines which have become a part of our language.

The third book of Odes contains the “Roman Odes” in which Horace set out the characteristics that made Romans, and Rome, what it was–the ruler of the world. Duty, honor, self sacrifice, industry, love are all treated in that book. It ends with this poem, his succinct, and prideful, homage to his own contribution to Roman greatness–and to the place of poetry in his, and our, lives.

I have built a monument more lasting than bronze
And higher than the pyramids’ pile,
Which no corrupting rain, nor impotent north wind–
Nor even the innumerable years’ flight through time
Can possibly pull down.

I can never completely die. A great part of me
Escapes the funeral rites. I’ll always increase,
Fresh with new praise.

As long as the tacit Vestal follows the priest
Up the Capitoline hill,
I will be known as he who brought this skill
Out of the dry land where rapid Aufidus roars,
And Daunus rules the rustic folk,
And first led Greek song to march in Latin measure.

So, Delphic Melpomene, lift up my deserved pride,
Duly won through my merit,
And gladly, with the laurel, wreathe my brow.

Here’s the Latin.

Exegi monumentum aere perennius
regalique situ pyramidum altius,
quod non imber edax, non aquilo impotens
possit diruere aut innumerabilis
annorum series et fuga temporum.
non omnis moriar multaque pars mei
vitabit Libitinam; usque ego postera
crescam laude recens. Dum Capitolium
scandet cum tacita virgine pontifex,
dicar, qua violens obstrepit Aufidus
et qua pauper aquae Daunus agrestium
regnavit populorum, ex humili potens,
princeps Aeolium carmen ad Italos
deduxisse modos. Sume superbiam
quaesitam meritis et mihi Delphica
lauro cinge volens, Melpomene, comam.