Okay, I confess, I did the spell check on the poem and did not proofread it. Is there are problem with that? You bet! Just look at the goofiness of the poem copy we distributed in class. I take full responsility. Forsberg
Below is the corrected text--you can either print it out or make the corrections on your text.
From Horace, Book II. Ode X
Receive, dear friend, the truths I teach:
So shalt thou live beyond the reach
Of adverse fortune’s power;
Not always tempt the distant deep,
Not always timorously creep
Along the treacherous shore.
He that holds fact the golden mean,
And lives contentedly between
The little and the great,
Feels not the wants that pinch the poor,
Nor plagues that haunt the rich man’s door,
Embittering all his state.
The tallest pines feel the most power
Of winter blasts: the loftiest tower
Comes heaviest to the ground;
The bolts that spare the mountain’s side,
His cloud-capped eminence divide,
And spread the ruin around.
The well-informed philosopher
Rejoices with a wholesome fear,
And hopes, in spite of pain;
If winter bellow from the north,
Soon the sweet spring comes dancing forth,
And nature laughs again.
What if thine heaven be overcast?
The dark appearance will not last;
Expect a brighter sky.
The God that strings the silver bow,
Awakes sometimes the Muses too,
And lays his arrows by.
If hindrances obstruct thy way,
Thy magnanimity display,
And let thy strength be seen;
But Oh! If fortune fill thy sail,
With more than propitious gale,
Take half thy canvas in.
