Horace: Book III, Ode 30 <br /> <br />"Exegi monumentum aere perennius---" <br /> <br /> <br />The monument that I have built is durable as brass, <br />And loftier than the Pyramids which mock the years that pass. <br />No blizzard can destroy it, nor furious rain corrode-- <br />Remember, I'm the bard who built the first Horatian Ode. <br /> <br />I shall not altogether die; a part of me's immortal. <br />A part of me shall never pass the mortuary portal; <br />And when I die my fame shall stand the nitric test of time-- <br />The fame of me of lowly birth, who built the lofty rhyme! <br /> <br />Ay, fame shall be my portion when no trace there is of me, <br />For I first madeÆolian songs the songs of Italy. <br />Accept I pray, Melpomene, my modest meed of praise, <br />And crowm my thinning, graying locks with wreathes of Delphic bays!<br /><br />Franklin P. Adams<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/his-monument/
