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Debits and credits

Chapter 46: THE LAST ODE
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About This Book

A varied collection of short fiction and verse that moves between mythic retellings, moral allegories, wartime vignettes, and social sketches. Pieces examine loyalty, duty, and the tension between tradition and change, often blending satirical observation with elegiac reflection. Some items use classical or legendary frames to illuminate human motives; others present intimate portraits of conflict, loss, and consolation. Formally diverse—featuring poems, short plays, and narrative sketches—the volume shifts tone frequently but returns to recurring concerns about conscience, belonging, and the costs and comforts of community.

THE LAST ODE

(Nov. 27, B.C. 8.)

Horace, Ode 31, Bk. V.

As watchers couched beneath a Bantine oak,
Hearing the dawn-wind stir,
Know that the present strength of night is broke
Though no dawn threaten her
Till dawn’s appointed hour—so Virgil died,
Aware of change at hand, and prophesied
Change upon all the Eternal Gods had made
And on the Gods alike—
Fated as dawn but, as the dawn, delayed
Till the just hour should strike—
A Star new-risen above the living and dead;
And the lost shades that were our loves restored
As lovers, and for ever. So he said;
Having received the word....
Maecenas waits me on the Esquiline:
Thither to-night go I....
And shall this dawn restore us, Virgil mine,
To dawn? Beneath what sky?

THE GARDENER