Translations, by C. S. C.," in his version of "Justum et tenacem." I
think it very probable that this will be found eventually to be the
best representation of the Alcaic in English, especially as it appears
to afford facilities for that linking of stanza to stanza which one who
wishes to adhere closely to the logical and rhythmical structure of the
Latin soon learns to desire. But I have not adopted it; and I believe
there is good reason for not doing so. With all its advantages, it has
the patent disadvantage of having been brought into notice by a poet
who is influencing the present generation as only a great living poet
can. A great writer now, an inferior writer hereafter, may be able to
handle it with some degree of independence; but the majority of those
who use it at present are sure in adopting Mr. Tennyson's metre to
adopt his manner. It is no reproach to "C. S. C." that his Ode reminds
us of Mr. Tennyson; it is a praise to him that the recollection is a
pleasant one. But Mr. Tennyson's manner is not the manner of Horace,
and it is the manner of a contemporary; the expression--a most powerful
and beautiful expression--of influences to which a translator of an
ancient classic feels himself to be too much subjected already. What is
wanted is a metre which shall have other associations than those of the
nineteenth century, which shall be the growth of various periods of
English poetry, and so be independent of any. Such a metre is that
which I have been led to choose, the eight-syllable iambic with
alternate rhymes. It is one of the commonest metres in the language,
and for that reason it is adapted to more than one class of subjects,
to the gay as well as to the grave. But I am mistaken if it is not
peculiarly suited to express that concentrated grandeur, that majestic
combination of high eloquence with high poetry, which make the early
Alcaic Odes of Horace's Third Book what they are to us. The main
difficulty is in accommodating its structure to that of the Latin, of
varying the pauses, and of linking stanza to stanza. It is a difficulty