With an echo of Ovid, Charles Baudelaire, the great French writer, sees himself as a poetic Icarus, who has flown too close to the sun and been scorched by the experience. Hear “Les Plaintes d’un Icare” in French and follow in English here; see the illustrated blog post here.
To a sixteenth-century French poet in search of an example, it is second nature to look for one in the classical world. Hear Du Bellay’s “Heureux qui comme Ulysse” in the original French and follow in English here.
See the blog post with Odysseus and the sirens here.
Horace describes a lively party to welcome Numida home from Spain: hear the poem in the original Latin and follow in English here; see the illustrated blog post here.
In a temple newly dedicated to Apollo, the God of Poetry, Horace prays to the God to grant him a sound and dignified old age with, most importantly, poetry in it. Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here; see the illustrated blog post here.
Apollo and Diana were brother and sister, and both associated with the bow. Hear Horace’s chorus of boys and girls in Latin and follow in English here; see the illustrated blog post here.
In an unconventional but moving ode in which the speaker is a drowned sailor, pleas for burial are combined with reflections on the inevitability of death. Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here; see the illustrated blog post here.
At a time when it seems equally possible that Rome may find peace or slide back into disastrous civil war, Horace addresses a heartfelt prayer to Fortuna, a Goddess who can be both kindly and remorselessly cruel. Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here; see the illustrated blog post here.