Odes, Book 3, Verse 29: Happy the Man -- Horace

Guest poem submitted by Simon Pereira Shorey:

(Poem #1365) Odes, Book 3, Verse 29: Happy the Man Happy the man, and happy he alone, He who can call today his own: He who, secure within, can say, Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today. Be fair or foul or rain or shine The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine. Not Heaven itself upon the past has power, But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour. -- Horace

 Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65 to 8 BC.
 Translated by John Dryden, 1631 to 1700 AD.

I always feel that this captures the essence of the imperative for each
of
us to take maximum advantage of our brief sojourn upon this planet. In
the unlikely event of my having an epitaph, this would be one to which I
should like to aspire.

Simon.

[PS. See Poem #633 for a biography and some comments on Horace's Odes -
t.]