Lays of Ancient Rome

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Under these circumstances a wise man will look with great suspicion on the legend which has come down to us. He will perhaps be inclined to regard the princes who are said to have founded the civil and religious institutions of Rome, the sons of Mars, and the husband of Egeria, as mere mythological personages, of the same class with Perseus and Ixion. As he draws nearer to the confines of authentic history, he will become less and less hard of belief. The Roman ballads are preceded by brief introductions, discussing the legends from a scholarly perspective. Macaulay explains that his intention was to write poems resembling those that might have been sung in ancient times. Was I moved by this? Hard to tell, for I was already weeping. I had begun to weep the moment Churchill began his recitation, for I remembered how my Aunt Alice--a contemporary of Sir Winston's--had often recited the very same passage to me. She was of Irish heritage, daughter of an immigrant from England, and had memorized these verses in a Cincinnati grade school during the final years of the First World War. (Aunt Alice also possessed a foot-high iron statue, of a Roman warrior with upraised sword, which she called "Horatius" and used as a door stop. He is still in service to our family, having guarded my bookshelves for most of the last twenty years.)

The poems themselves are fun, in an old-fashioned bumptious way. They aren’t first-rate poetry, but they are first-rate second-rate poetry, and that’s good enough for me. (“The Raven,” “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” and “The Highwayman” are all excellent examples of my idea of first-rate second-rate verse.) The plan occurred to me in the jungle at the foot of the Neilgherry hills; and most of the verses were made during a dreary sojourn at Ootacamund and a disagreeable voyage in the Bay of Bengal. [1] Their leader was false Sextus, / That wrought the deed of shame: / With restless pace and haggard face / To his last field he came. / Men said he saw strange visions / Which none beside might see; / And that strange sounds were in his ears / Which none might hear but he. / A woman fair and stately, / But pale as are the dead, / Oft through the watches of the night / Sat spinning by his bed. / And as she plied the distaff, / In a sweet voice and low, / She sang of great old houses, / And fights fought long ago. / So spun she, and so sang she, / Until the east was gray. / Then pointed to her bleeding breast, / And shrieked, and fled away." Langworth, Richard M. (15 March 2018). " "Then Out Spake Brave Horatius": A Review of "Darkest Hour" ". winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu. Hillsdale College . Retrieved 16 July 2021.You can see why the Victorians loved these verses by Macaulay, celebrating as they do the very Victorian virtues of Courage and Patriotism. I myself was swept up in some of Macaulay’s Lays, in particular I was moved by the poem “Horatius” whose famous lines pop up in films from time to time (such as Tom Cruise’s “Oblivion” and, more recently, the Churchill biopic “Darkest Hour.”):

Celebrity Death Match Special: Horatio at the Bridge versus Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery Lays of Ancient Rome has been reprinted on numerous occasions. An 1881 edition, lavishly illustrated by John Reinhard Weguelin, has frequently been republished. Countless schoolchildren have encountered the work as a means of introducing them to history, poetry, and the moral values of courage, self-sacrifice, and patriotism that Macaulay extolled.Horatius' speech is included at the Chushul war memorial at Rezang La in memory of the 13th Battalion, Kumaon Regiment of the Indian Army. The phrase "how can man die better" was used by Benjamin Pogrund as the title of his biography of anti-apartheid activist Robert Sobukwe. He reeled, and on Herminius / He leaned one breathing-space; / Then, like a wild cat mad with wounds, / Sprang right at Astur's face. / Through teeth, and skull, and helmet / So fierce a thrust he sped, / The good sword stood a hand-breadth out / Behind the Tuscan's head."