Odes

In his Odes, he revisited the hills and woods of his childhood and set forth the rural life as the means to independence and self-reliance.

Horace, in the Odes, represented himself as heir to earlier Greek lyric poets but displayed a sensitive, economical mastery of words all his own. He sings of love, wine, nature (almost romantically), of friends, of moderation; in short, his favourite topics.

In the Odes he adapted other Greek metres and claimed immortality for introducing early Greek lyric to Latin. The Odes rarely show the passion now associated with lyric but are marked by elegance, dignity, and studied perfectionism.