Book IV: Ode VII: Diffugere Nives
The snow is fled: the trees their leaves put on,The fields their green:Earth owns the change, and rivers lessening run.Their banks between.Naked the Nymphs and Graces in the meadsThe dance essay:"No 'scaping death" proclaims the year, that speedsThis sweet spring day.Frosts yield to zephyrs; Summer drives out Spring,To vanish, whenRich Autumn sheds his fruits; round wheels the ring,--Winter again!Yet the swift moons repair Heaven's detriment:We, soon as thrustWhere good Aeneas, Tullus, Ancus went,What are we? dust.Can Hope assure you one more day to liveFrom powers above?You rescue from your heir whate'er you giveThe self you love.When life is o'er, and Minos has rehearsedThe grand last doom,Not birth, nor eloquence, nor worth, shall burstTorquatus' tomb.Not Dian's self can chaste HippolytusTo life recall,Nor Theseus free his loved PirithousFrom Lethe's thrall.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- minos n.
- A king and lawgiver of Crete, fabled to be the son of Jupiter and Europa. After death he was made a judge in the Lower Regions.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Book IV: Ode VII: Diffugere Nives is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Odes and Carmen Saeculare, Project Gutenberg ebook #5432, the John Conington translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Horace, Book IV: Ode VII: Diffugere Nives, in The Odes and Carmen Saeculare (1863), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5432, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/horace-odes/book-iv-ode-vii-diffugere-nives.html, id L13988.
Form and metre
Book IV: Ode VII: Diffugere Nives is 28 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 36% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -A-ABCBCDEDEFGFGHIHIJKJK-L-L on · greenA · run · betweenA · meadsB · essayC · speedsB · dayC · springD · whenE · ringD · againE · detrimentF · thrustG · wentF · dustG · liveH · aboveI · giveH · loveI · rehearsedJ · doomK · burstJ · tombK · hippolytus · recallL · pirithous · thrallL
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The snow is fled: the trees their leaves put on, | 10 | ·········· |
| The fields their green: | 4 | ···· |
| Earth owns the change, and rivers lessening run. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Their banks between. | 4 | ···· |
| Naked the Nymphs and Graces in the meads | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| The dance essay: | 4 | ··˘/ |
| "No 'scaping death" proclaims the year, that speeds | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| This sweet spring day. | 4 | ···· |
| Frosts yield to zephyrs; Summer drives out Spring, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| To vanish, when | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Rich Autumn sheds his fruits; round wheels the ring,-- | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Winter again! | 4 | /˘˘/ |
| Yet the swift moons repair Heaven's detriment: | 10 | ····˘//˘/˘ |
| We, soon as thrust | 4 | ···· |
| Where good Aeneas, Tullus, Ancus went, | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| What are we? dust. | 4 | ···· |
| Can Hope assure you one more day to live | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| From powers above? | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| You rescue from your heir whate'er you give | 11 | ·/˘···˘˘/·· |
| The self you love. | 4 | ···· |
| When life is o'er, and Minos has rehearsed | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| The grand last doom, | 4 | ···· |
| Not birth, nor eloquence, nor worth, shall burst | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Torquatus' tomb. | 4 | ···· |
| Not Dian's self can chaste Hippolytus | 9 | ·/˘···˘/˘ |
| To life recall, | 4 | ··/· |
| Nor Theseus free his loved Pirithous | 9 | ········· |
| From Lethe's thrall. | 3 | ··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.