On the significance of
the word ORAM
 

Note on philology by Steven H. Cullinane, May 21, 2004


39     tuque ades inceptumque una decurre laborem,
40     o decus, o famae merito pars maxima nostrae,
41     Maecenas, pelagoque volans da vela patenti.
42     non ego cuncta meis amplecti versibus opto,
43     non, mihi si linguae centum sint oraque centum,
44     ferrea vox. ades et primi lege litoris oram;
45     in manibus terrae....

And be thou nigh, to fulfil at my side the task begun, Maecenas our honour, by just due the chiefest sharer in our fame, and give thy flying sails to the spacious sea. I ask not to embrace it all in these my verses; no, though I had an hundred tongues and an hundred mouths, and my voice were iron: come, and skirt close by the shore's edge. The earth is in hand....

Publius Vergilius Maro,

Georgics, Book II

The words "oram" and "Maro"
are part of the following poem:  

 

See my journal entry of May 21, 2004,
Theme and Variations.


Page created May 21, 2004