Horace was a favorite of the American poet and journalist Eugene Field (1850-1895), who together with his brother Roswell Martin Field translated many of Horace's poems in Echoes from the Sabine Farm. In "The Truth about Horace," published in his Western and Other Verse, Eugene Field gently chides the professors for their efforts to conceal from their students the Roman poet's amorous adventures.
It is very aggravating
To hear the solemn prating
Of the fossils who are stating
That old Horace was a prude;
When we know that with the ladies
He was always raising Hades,
And with many an escapade his
Best productions were imbued.
There's really not much harm in a
Large number of his carmina,
But these people find alarm in a
Few records of his acts;
So they'd squelch the muse caloric,
And to students sophomoric
They'd present as metaphoric
What old Horace meant as facts.
We have always thought 'em lazy;
Now we adjudge 'em crazy!
Why, Horace was a daisy
That was very much alive!
And the wisest of us know him
As his Lydia verses show him, --
Go, read that virile poem, --
It is No. 25.
He was a very owl, sir,
And starting out to prowl, sir,
You bet he made Rome howl, sir,
Until he filled his date;
With a massic-laden ditty
And a classic maiden pretty
He painted up the city,
And Maecenas paid the freight!