Odes 1.4 begins with spring: Solvitur ācris hiems, biting winter is released. A few sentences on, it turns: Pallida Mors aequō pulsat pede pauperum tabernās rēgumque turrīs, pale Death knocks with an impartial foot at the cottages of the poor and the towers of kings.
The third line people search for, vītae summa brevis, is the start of the next sentence: the short span of life forbids us to begin a long hope. All three sentences are below, each glossed word by word.
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