A difficult ex has a new, young lover. The metre, the scenario and the lady’s name are Greek: whether Horace had a real “Pyrrha”, we can’t know. The language is incredibly condensed – surely no-one ever used word order quite as flexibly as this in real life– and it uses strongly sexual imagery. Pyrrha is intoxicating but the poet uses stormy seas as a metaphor for the dangers of loving her. He has been shipwrecked, but made it to shore and, as thanks for his escape, hung up his wet clothes in the temple as an offering to “the powerful God of the sea” (Neptune, or Cupid?)
One of Horace’s most magical poems.
See the illustrated blog post here.
Metre: (fourth) Asclepiad, two standard twelve-syllable lines followed by a seven-syllable phrecratean and an eight-syllable glyconic.
To listen, press play: