Choriambic Metre

Horace gives us a great variety, but the main feature in all is the prevalence of the choriambus (). Specimen translations of two of these metres are subjoined:

(1) Horace, 1 Odes, viii.

Lydia, why on Stanley,

By the great gods, tell me, I pray, ruinous love you centre?

Once he was strong and manly,

Never seen now, patient of toil, Marsʹ sunny camp to eʹ ter.

E. C. B.

(2) The other specimen is 1 Odes, xii.

When you, with an approving smile,

Praise those delicate arms, Lydy, of Telephus,

Ah me! how you stir up my bile!

Heart-sick, that for a boy you should forsake me thus.

E. C. B.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.