Excussos manibus calamos
A Final Song for Mother
The poet reluctantly sets aside his rural labors to compose one final tribute to his mother's memory before committing to silence.
The Muse told me it was a disgrace that I’d put down my pens to take up a sickle in the country. She approaches my Mother, having hired the Fates with a song, and through this funeral, the sick woman claims her own honor. I couldn't help but go, spurred on by a sharp lash; the honor of my Mother, which surpasses all songs, demands it. Come then, write: you’ve won, Muse. But listen, I’m writing this once, foolishly, so that I can be silent forever.
Read the original Latin
Excussos manibus calamos falcemque resumptam Rure, sibi dixit Musa fuisse probro. Aggreditur Matrem, conductis carmine Parcis, Funereque hoc cultum vindicat aegra suum. Non potui non ire acri stimulante flagello: Quin Matris superans carmina poscit honos. Eia, agedum, scribe: vicisti, Musa; sed audi, Stulta semel scribo, perpetuo ut sileam.
The Latin Poems companion
Read all 57 of Herbert's Latin poems, one a day
Chosen Portion delivers a Herbert poem (or another royal-court devotional text) as your free daily reading on iOS
Herbert's short poems were written for meditative re-reading; Chosen Portion serves one per day, turning the two collections into a two-month devotional cycle
- All 57 Latin poems in modern English, roughly two months of daily readings
- One short poem a day, readable in under 5 minutes
- Includes the full Sub Rosa archive of 78 historic devotional works