Carmen Saeculare Carmen Saeculare The Carmen Saeculare (Latin for "Secular Hymn" or "Song of the Ages") is a hymn in Sapphic meter written by the Roman poet Horace. It was commissioned by the Roman emperor Augustus in 17 BC. The hymn was sung by a chorus of twenty-seven maidens and the same number of youths on the occasion of the Ludi Saeculares (Secular Games), which celebrated the end of one " saeculum" (typically 110 years in length) and the beginning of another. The mythological and religious song is in the form of a prayer addressed to Phoebus (Apollo) and Diana; it especially
William Hamilton (comic poet) William Hamilton (comic poet) William Hamilton (1665? – 24 May 1751) was a Scottish poet. He wrote comic, mock-tragic poetry such as ""The Last Dying Words of Bonny Heck"" - a once-champion hare coursing greyhound in the East Neuk of Fife who was about to be hanged, for growing too slow. It is written in anglified Scots, with a sprightly narrative and wry comic touches. Hamilton was born in Gilbertfield, Cambuslang, Scotland. In the "Familiar Epistles" he exchanged with Allan Ramsay, he modestly acknowledges the limitations of his own muse. Ramsay singles out "Heck" as he suggests there is room