What is this poem about? The image of the ship is surely not to be taken literally, so what does it stand for: the ship of state, as in so many poems, ancient and modern? But the generally accepted date of appearance of the first three books of Horace’s Odes is 23 BCE, by which time civil wars were over and the Emperor Augustus had Rome and its possessions firmly under his control, so implying that they were at risk might seem rather tactless. There have been various suggestions, including that the ship is either Horace’s poetic talent, or a love affair going through a stormy phase. The most likely solution is surely that this is a “ship-of-State” poem written in earlier and more dangerous times, before the turning point of Octavian/Augustus’s victory at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, followed by the deaths of Mark Antony and Cleopatra.. At all events, the poem is certainly rousing: the language is vivid, often spilling over the line-breaks, and this and Horace’s artful use of metre carry the sense along in imitation of the swell of a pounding sea.
Metre: (fourth) Asclepiad, two standard twelve- syllable lines followed by a seven-syllable pherecretean and an eight-syllable glyconic.
See the illustrated blog post here.
To listen, press play.