' So a poet should
speak, and to every singer his own land should be dearest. Beautiful is
Italy, with the grave and delicate outlines of her sacred hills, her
dark groves, her little cities perched like eyries on the crags, her
rivers gliding under ancient walls: beautiful is Italy, her seas and her
suns."
_ii_. THE INTERPRETER OF ITALIAN LIVING
Again, in its visualization of the life of Italy, Horace's art is no
less clear than in the presentation of her scenery. Where else may be
seen so many vivid incidental pictures of men at their daily occupations
of work or play? In _Satire_ and _Epistle_ this is to be expected,
though there are satirists and writers of letters who never transfer the
colors of life to their canvas; but the lyrics, too, are kaleidoscopic
with scenes from the daily round of human life. We are given fleeting
but vivid glimpses into the career of merchant and sailor. We see the
sportsman in chase of the boar, the rustic setting snares for the greedy
thrush, the serenader under the casement, the plowman at his ingleside,
the anxious mother at the window on the cliff, never taking her eyes
from the curved shore, the husbandman passing industrious days on his
own hillside, tilling his own acres with his own oxen, and training the
vine to the unwedded tree, the young men of the hill-towns carrying
bundles of fagots along rocky slopes, the rural holiday and its
festivities, the sun-browned wife making ready the evening meal against
the coming of the tired peasant.
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