Analysis- Clockwork Angel

http://stpeter.im/writings/fire/horace4_7.html 

"The Snows Have Fled" (Diffrugere Nives)

(Horace, Odes IV.7)

translated by Peter Saint-Andre

"The snows have fled, already
The grass returns to the fields
And leaves return to the trees.
Earth is turning her changes,
The rivers flow less strongly.
Grace along with her Nymphs and
Twin sisters ventures naked
To lead her bands of dancers.
"Hope for immortality
Not", warn the year and the hour
That steal the nourishing day.
The Zephyr lessens the cold,
The Summer tramples the Spring
Only to be overturned
As soon as fruit-bearing Fall
Has poured forth its crops, and soon
Dead winter returns again.
Swift moons heal the heavenly
Damage — but we, when we have
Gone down where good Aeneas,
Where rich Tullus and Arcus
Have gone — we are dust and shade.
Who knows if the gods will add
Tomorrow's time to our sum?
The only thing that escapes
Your heir's grasping hands will be
What you've added to your soul.
When once you've died and Minos
Has given his distinguished
Judgment, nothing, Torquatus —
Not birth nor eloquence nor
Goodness — will restore your life.
For Diana can't release
Good Hippolytus from the
Darkness, nor has Theseus
The power to burst the chains
Of his dear Perithoös."

     In the book, Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare, there is a quote said by a main character named Will. He says "Pulvis Et Umbra Sumas", which means "We are dust and shadows". I decided to look in deeper to the meaning, which made me find out that the quote is from Odes VII, which was originally written in Latin by Horace. I found this very interesting.
     Clockwork Angel is about a girl named Tessa Gray who moves to London after her aunt dies. When Tessa is kidnapped, she discovers that she is a shapeshifter, and that she is not mortal. Soon after Tessa discovers this, she is rescued by a strange boy who turns out to be a Shadowhunter- someone who fights demons. His name is Will Harondale, who says the quote, ""Pulvis et umbra sums. It's a line from Horace. 'We are dust and shadows' Appropriate, don't you think?" Will said. "It's not a long life, killing demons; one tends to die young, and then they burn your body- dust to dust, in a literal sense. And then we vanish into the shadows of history, nary a mark on the page of a mundane book to remind the world that once we existed at all." (Page 90 of the Clockwork Angel)
     I can infer that Cassandra Clare used this quote because it describes the truth behind the Shadowhunters.   Shadows spend their whole life fighting to save lives, but when they die, they become as though they have never existed at all. Shadowhunters turn to dust, then disappear into the shadows. The poem as a whole relates to Clockwork Angel because it shows how even though they may have fought their whole lives to protect others, there will always be darkness. In the book, the word darkness is used more as a being then a normal noun. It is used to show that there will always be terrors in the world, but the Shadowhunters just try to keep it from being overbearing. The poem, "The Snows Have Fled" perfectly describes the book "The Clockwork Angel".