s: Should keep his cattle closer to their stalls.


s: No sooner are the winds at point to rise,


s: Than either Ocean's firths begin to toss


s: And swell, and a dry crackling sound is heard


s: Upon the heights, or one loud ferment booms


s: The beach afar, and through the forest goes


s: Scarce can the billow spare the curved keels,


s: When swift the sea-gulls from the middle main


s: Come winging, and their shrieks are shoreward borne,


s: When ocean-loving cormorants on dry land


s: Besport them, and the hern, her marshy haunts


s: Forsaking, mounts above the soaring cloud.


s: Oft, too, when wind is toward, the stars thou'lt see


s: From heaven shoot headlong, and through murky night


s: Long trails of fire white-glistening in their wake,


s: Or light chaff flit in air with fallen leaves,


s: Or feathers on the wave-top float and play.


s: But when from regions of the furious North


s: It lightens, and when thunder fills the halls


s: With brimming dikes are flooded, and at sea


s: No mariner but furls his dripping sails.


s: Or, as it rises, the high-soaring cranes


s: Upturned to heaven, the heifer snuffs the gale


s: Through gaping nostrils, or about the meres


s: Shrill-twittering flits the swallow, and the frogs


s: Crouch in the mud and chant their dirge of old.


s: Oft, too, the ant from out her inmost cells,


s: Fretting the narrow path, her eggs conveys;


s: Or the huge bow sucks moisture; or a host


s: Of rooks from food returning in long line


s: Clamour with jostling wings. Now mayst thou see


s: The various ocean-fowl and those that pry


s: Round Asian meads within thy fresher-pools,


s: About their shoulders dash the plenteous spray,


s: Now duck their head beneath the wave, now run


s: Of their mad bathing-revel. Then the crow


s: With full voice, good-for-naught, inviting rain,


s: Stalks on the dry sand mateless and alone.


s: Nor e'en the maids, that card their nightly task,


s: Know not the storm-sign, when in blazing crock


s: They see the lamp-oil sputtering with a growth


s: Sunshine and open skies thou mayst forecast,


s: And learn by tokens sure, for then nor dimmed


s: Appear the stars' keen edges, nor the moon


s: As borrowing of her brother's beams to rise,


s: Nor fleecy films to float along the sky.


s: Not to the sun's warmth then upon the shore


s: Do halcyons dear to Thetis ope their wings,


s: Nor filthy swine take thought to toss on high


s: With scattering snout the straw-wisps. But the clouds


s: Seek more the vales, and rest upon the plain,


s: And from the roof-top the night-owl for naught


s: Watching the sunset plies her 'lated song.


s: Towering, and Scylla for the purple lock


s: Pays dear; for whereso, as she flies, her wings


s: The light air winnow, lo! fierce, implacable,


s: Nisus with mighty whirr through heaven pursues;


s: Where Nisus heavenward soareth, there her wings


s: Clutch as she flies, the light air winnowing still.


s: Soft then the voice of rooks from indrawn throat


s: Thrice, four times, o'er repeated, and full oft


s: On their high cradles, by some hidden joy


s: Gladdened beyond their wont, in bustling throngs


s: Among the leaves they riot; so sweet it is,


s: When showers are spent, their own loved nests again


s: That heaven some native wit to these assigned,


s: Or fate a larger prescience, but that when


s: The storm and shifting moisture of the air


s: Have changed their courses, and the sky-god now,


s: Wet with the south-wind, thickens what was rare,


s: And what was gross releases, then, too, change


s: Their spirits' fleeting phases, and their breasts


s: Feel other motions now, than when the wind


s: Was driving up the cloud-rack. Hence proceeds


s: That blending of the feathered choirs afield,


s: And moons in order following thou regard,


s: Ne'er will to-morrow's hour deceive thee, ne'er


s: Wilt thou be caught by guile of cloudless night.


s: When first the moon recalls her rallying fires,


s: If dark the air clipped by her crescent dim,


s: A mighty rain is brewing; but if her face


s: With maiden blush she mantle, 'twill be wind,


s: For wind turns Phoebe still to ruddier gold.


s: But if at her fourth rising, for 'tis that


s: Gives surest counsel, clear she ride thro' heaven


s: With horns unblunted, then shall that whole day,


s: And to the month's end those that spring from it,


s: Rainless and windless be, while safe ashore


s: The sun too, both at rising, and when soon


s: He dives beneath the waves, shall yield thee signs;


s: For signs, none trustier, travel with the sun,


s: Both those which in their course with dawn he brings,


s: And those at star-rise. When his springing orb


s: With spots he pranketh, muffled in a cloud,


s: And shrinks mid-circle, then of showers beware;


s: For then the South comes driving from the deep,


s: To trees and crops and cattle bringing bane.


s: Or when at day-break through dark clouds his rays


s: Burst and are scattered, or when rising pale


s: But sorry shelter then, alack I will yield


s: Vine-leaf to ripening grapes; so thick a hail


s: In spiky showers spins rattling on the roof.


s: And this yet more 'twill boot thee bear in mind,


s: Upon the sun's own face strange colours stray;


s: Dark tells of rain, of east winds fiery-red;


s: Then all the heavens convulsed in wrath thou'lt see-


s: Storm-clouds and wind together. Me that night


s: Let no man bid fare forth upon the deep,


s: Nor rend the rope from shore. But if, when both


s: He brings again and hides the day's return,


s: Clear-orbed he shineth, idly wilt thou dread


s: The storm-clouds, and beneath the lustral North


s: See the woods waving. What late eve in fine


s: Bears in her bosom, whence the wind that brings


s: Fair-weather-clouds, or what the rain South


s: The sun will give thee. Who dare charge the sun


s: And secret swelling of the waves of war.


s: He too it was, when Caesar's light was quenched,


s: For Rome had pity, when his bright head he veiled


s: In iron-hued darkness, till a godless age


s: Trembled for night eternal; at that time


s: Howbeit earth also, and the ocean-plains,


s: And dogs obscene, and birds of evil bode


s: Gave tokens. Yea, how often have we seen


s: In billowy floods boil o'er the Cyclops' fields,


s: And roll down globes of fire and molten rocks!


s: A clash of arms through all the heaven was heard


s: By Germany; strange heavings shook the Alps.


s: Yea, and by many through the breathless groves


s: A voice was heard with power, and wondrous-pale


s: Phantoms were seen upon the dusk of night,


s: And cattle spake, portentous! streams stand still,


s: And the earth yawns asunder, ivory weeps


s: For sorrow in the shrines, and bronzes sweat.


s: Up-twirling forests with his eddying tide,


s: Madly he bears them down, that lord of floods,


s: Eridanus, till through all the plain are swept


s: Beasts and their stalls together. At that time


s: Dark-threatening fibres, springs to trickle blood,


s: And high-built cities night-long to resound


s: With the wolves' howling. Never more than then


s: From skies all cloudless fell the thunderbolts,


s: Nor blazed so oft the comet's fire of bale.


s: The Roman hosts with kindred weapons rush


s: To battle, nor did the high gods deem it hard


s: That twice Emathia and the wide champaign


s: Of Haemus should be fattening with our blood.


s: Ay, and the time will come when there anigh,


s: Heaving the earth up with his curved plough,


s: Some swain will light on javelins by foul rust


s: Corroded, or with ponderous harrow strike


s: Bones as of giants from the trench untombed.


s: Preservest, this new champion at the least


s: Our blood thy Trojan perjuries hath paid,


s: Laomedon. Long since the courts of heaven


s: Begrudge us thee, our Caesar, and complain


s: That thou regard'st the triumphs of mankind,


s: Here where the wrong is right, the right is wrong,


s: Where wars abound so many, and myriad-faced


s: Is crime; where no meet honour hath the plough;


s: The fields, their husbandmen led far away,


s: Rot in neglect, and curved pruning-hooks


s: Into the sword's stiff blade are fused and forged.


s: Is stirring; neighbouring cities are in arms,


s: The laws that bound them snapped; and godless war


s: The four-horse chariots from the barriers poured


s: Still quicken o'er the course, and, idly now


s: Grasping the reins, the driver by his team


s: Is onward borne, nor heeds the car his curb.


s: Thus far the tilth of fields and stars of heaven;


s: Now will I sing thee, Bacchus, and, with thee,


s: The forest's young plantations and the fruit


s: O Father of the wine-press; all things here


s: Teem with the bounties of thy hand; for thee


s: With viny autumn laden blooms the field,


s: And foams the vintage high with brimming vats;


s: Hither, O Father of the wine-press, come,


s: And stripped of buskin stain thy bared limbs


s: For some of their own force spontaneous spring,


s: The plains and river-windings far and wide,


s: With green leaf glimmering gray; and some there be


s: From chance-dropped seed that rear them, as the tall


s: Chestnuts, and, mightiest of the branching wood,


s: Deemed by the Greeks of old. With some sprouts forth


s: A forest of dense suckers from the root,


s: As elms and cherries; so, too, a pigmy plant,


s: Beneath its mother's mighty shade upshoots


s: The bay-tree of Parnassus. Such the modes


s: Nature imparted first; hence all the race


s: Of forest-trees and shrubs and sacred groves


s: Which use by method for itself acquired.


s: One, sliving suckers from the tender frame


s: Of the tree-mother, plants them in the trench;


s: One buries the bare stumps within his field,


s: Truncheons cleft four-wise, or sharp-pointed stakes;


s: Some forest-trees the layer's bent arch await,


s: And slips yet quick within the parent-soil;


s: No root need others, nor doth the pruner's hand


s: Shrink to restore the topmost shoot to earth


s: That gave it being. Nay, marvellous to tell,


s: Lopped of its limbs, the olive, a mere stock,


s: Still thrusts its root out from the sapless wood,


s: Change to another's with no loss to rue,


s: Pear-tree transformed the ingrafted apple yield,


s: And stony cornels on the plum-tree blush.


s: Come then, and learn what tilth to each belongs


s: According to their kinds, ye husbandmen,


s: And tame with culture the wild fruits, lest earth


s: One forest of the wine-god, and to clothe


s: At hand, and with me ply the voyage of toil


s: I am bound on, O my glory, O thou that art


s: Maecenas, and on this wide ocean launched


s: Spread sail like wings to waft thee. Not that I


s: With my poor verse would comprehend the whole,


s: Nay, though a hundred tongues, a hundred mouths


s: Were mine, a voice of iron; be thou at hand,


s: Skirt but the nearer coast-line; see the shore


s: Is in our grasp; not now with feigned song


s: Through winding bouts and tedious preludings


s: Fruitless indeed, but blithe and strenuous spring,


s: Since Nature lurks within the soil. And yet


s: Even these, should one engraft them, or transplant


s: To well-drilled trenches, will anon put of


s: Their woodland temper, and, by frequent tilth,


s: To whatso craft thou summon them, make speed


s: To follow. So likewise will the barren shaft


s: That from the stock-root issueth, if it be


s: Set out with clear space amid open fields:


s: Now the tree-mother's towering leaves and boughs


s: Darken, despoil of increase as it grows,


s: And blast it in the bearing. Lastly, that


s: Which from shed seed ariseth, upward wins


s: But slowly, yielding promise of its shade


s: Forgetful of their former juice, the grape


s: Bears sorry clusters, for the birds a prey.


s: Soothly on all must toil be spent, and all


s: Trained to the trench and at great cost subdued.


s: But reared from truncheons olives answer best,


s: As vines from layers, and from the solid wood


s: The Paphian myrtles; while from suckers spring


s: Both hardy hazels and huge ash, the tree


s: That rims with shade the brows of Hercules,


s: So springs the towering palm too, and the fir


s: Destined to spy the dangers of the deep.


s: Is grafted; so have barren planes ere now


s: Stout apples borne, with chestnut-flower the beech,


s: The mountain-ash with pear-bloom whitened o'er,


s: And swine crunched acorns 'neath the boughs of elms.


s: And grafting one: for where the buds push forth


s: Amidst the bark, and burst the membranes thin,


s: Wherein from some strange tree a germ they pen,


s: And to the moist rind bid it cleave and grow.


s: Or, otherwise, in knotless trunks is hewn


s: A path with wedges cloven; then fruitful slips


s: Are set herein, and- no long time- behold!


s: To heaven upshot with teeming boughs, the tree


s: Strange leaves admires and fruitage not its own.


s: And bitter-berried pausians, no, nor yet


s: Nor from like cuttings are Crustumian pears


s: Not the same vintage from our trees hangs down,


s: Vines Thasian are there, Mareotids white,


s: These apt for richer soils, for lighter those:


s: Psithian for raisin-wine more useful, thin


s: And tie the tongue: purples and early-ripes,


s: And how, O Rhaetian, shall I hymn thy praise?


s: Yet cope not therefore with Falernian bins.


s: To which the Tmolian bows him, ay, and king


s: For gush of wine-juice or for length of years.


s: Nor thee must I pass over, vine of Rhodes,


s: Welcomed by gods and at the second board,


s: Nor thee, Bumastus, with plump clusters swollen.


s: But lo! how many kinds, and what their names,


s: There is no telling, nor doth it boot to tell;


s: Who lists to know it, he too would list to learn


s: How many sand-grains are by Zephyr tossed


s: On Libya's plain, or wot, when Eurus falls


s: Come rolling shoreward from the Ionian sea.


s: Not that all soils can all things bear alike.


s: Willows by water-courses have their birth,


s: Myrtles throng gayest; Bacchus, lastly, loves


s: The bare hillside, and yews the north wind's chill.


s: Mark too the earth by outland tillers tamed,


s: And Eastern homes of Arabs, and tattooed


s: Of balsams oozing from the perfumed wood,


s: Of Aethiop forests hoar with downy wool,


s: Or how the Seres comb from off the leaves


s: Their silky fleece? Of groves which India bears,


s: Ocean's near neighbour, earth's remotest nook,


s: Where not an arrow-shot can cleave the air


s: Above their tree-tops? yet no laggards they,


s: When girded with the quiver! Media yields


s: The bitter juices and slow-lingering taste


s: Of the blest citron-fruit, than which no aid


s: Comes timelier, when fierce step-dames drug the cup


s: With simples mixed and spells of baneful power,


s: To drive the deadly poison from the limbs.


s: Large the tree's self in semblance like a bay,


s: And, showered it not a different scent abroad,


s: A bay it had been; for no wind of heaven


s: Its foliage falls; the flower, none faster, clings;


s: With it the Medes for sweetness lave the lips,


s: And ease the panting breathlessness of age.


s: But no, not Mede-land with its wealth of woods,


s: Nor Ganges fair, and Hermus thick with gold,


s: Nor Bactria, nor Panchaia, one wide tract


s: Of incense-teeming sand. Here never bulls


s: With nostrils snorting fire upturned the sod


s: Sown with the monstrous dragon's teeth, nor crop


s: Of warriors bristled thick with lance and helm;


s: With fruitful flocks and olives. Hence arose


s: The war-horse stepping proudly o'er the plain;


s: Hence thy white flocks, Clitumnus, and the bull,


s: Of victims mightiest, which full oft have led,


s: Bathed in thy sacred stream, the triumph-pomp


s: Here blooms perpetual spring, and summer here


s: In months that are not summer's; twice teem the flocks;


s: Twice doth the tree yield service of her fruit.


s: But ravening tigers come not nigh, nor breed


s: Its hapless gatherers, nor with sweep so vast


s: Doth the scaled serpent trail his endless coils


s: Along the ground, or wreathe him into spires.


s: Mark too her cities, so many and so proud,


s: Of mighty toil the achievement, town on town


s: Or should I celebrate the sea that laves


s: Her upper shores and lower? or those broad lakes?


s: Thee, Larius, greatest and, Benacus, thee


s: With billowy uproar surging like the main?


s: Or sing her harbours, and the barrier cast


s: Athwart the Lucrine, and how ocean chafes


s: With mighty bellowings, where the Julian wave


s: Echoes the thunder of his rout, and through


s: A land no less that in her veins displays


s: Ay, and with gold hath flowed abundantly.


s: A land that reared a valiant breed of men,


s: The Marsi and Sabellian youth, and, schooled


s: To hardship, the Ligurian, and with these


s: The Volscian javelin-armed, the Decii too,


s: The Scipios, stubborn warriors, ay, and thee,


s: Great Caesar, who in Asia's utmost bounds


s: With conquering arm e'en now art fending far


s: The unwarlike Indian from the heights of Rome.


s: Hail! land of Saturn, mighty mother thou


s: Of fruits and heroes; 'tis for thee I dare


s: The song of Ascra through the towns of Rome.


s: Now for the native gifts of various soils,


s: What powers hath each, what hue, what natural bent


s: For yielding increase. First your stubborn lands


s: And churlish hill-sides, where are thorny fields


s: Of meagre marl and gravel, these delight


s: In long-lived olive-groves to Pallas dear.


s: Take for a sign the plenteous growth hard by


s: With woodland berries. But a soil that's rich,


s: In moisture sweet exulting, and the plain


s: That teems with grasses on its fruitful breast,


s: Such as full oft in hollow mountain-dell


s: We view beneath us- from the craggy heights


s: Streams thither flow with fertilizing mud-


s: A plain which southward rising feeds the fern


s: By curved ploughs detested, this one day


s: Shall yield thee store of vines full strong to gush


s: In torrents of the wine-god; this shall be


s: Fruitful of grapes and flowing juice like that


s: We pour to heaven from bowls of gold, what time


s: Cattle delight thee rather, steers, or lambs,


s: Or goats that kill the tender plants, then seek


s: Full-fed Tarentum's glades and distant fields,


s: Whose weedy water feeds the snow-white swan:


s: There nor clear springs nor grass the flocks will fail,


s: And all the day-long browsing of thy herds


s: Shall the cool dews of one brief night repair.


s: Land which the burrowing share shows dark and rich,


s: With crumbling soil- for this we counterfeit


s: In ploughing- for corn is goodliest; from no field


s: More wains thou'lt see wend home with plodding steers;


s: Or that from which the husbandman in spleen


s: Has cleared the timber, and o'erthrown the copse


s: That year on year lay idle, and from the roots


s: They banished from their nests have sought the skies;


s: But the rude plain beneath the ploughshare's stroke


s: Starts into sudden brightness. For indeed


s: The starved hill-country gravel scarce serves the bees


s: Rough tufa and chalk too, by black water-worms


s: Gnawed through and through, proclaim no soils beside


s: So rife with serpent-dainties, or that yield


s: Such winding lairs to lurk in. That again,


s: Which vapoury mist and flitting smoke exhales,


s: Drinks moisture up and casts it forth at will,


s: Which, ever in its own green grass arrayed,


s: Mars not the metal with salt scurf of rust-


s: That shall thine elms with merry vines enwreathe;


s: That teems with olive; that shall thy tilth prove kind


s: To cattle, and patient of the curved share.


s: Such ploughs rich Capua, such the coast that skirts


s: Thy ridge, Vesuvius, and the Clanian flood,


s: Dost ask if loose or passing firm it be-


s: Since one for corn hath liking, one for wine,


s: The firmer sort for Ceres, none too loose


s: For thee, Lyaeus?- with scrutinizing eye


s: First choose thy ground, and bid a pit be sunk


s: Deep in the solid earth, then cast the mould


s: All back again, and stamp the surface smooth.


s: If it suffice not, loose will be the land,


s: More meet for cattle and for kindly vines;


s: But if, rebellious, to its proper bounds


s: The soil returns not, but fills all the trench


s: And overtops it, then the glebe is gross;


s: Look for stiff ridges and reluctant clods,


s: And with strong bullocks cleave the fallow crust.


s: Salt ground again, and bitter, as 'tis called-


s: Nor grape her kind, nor apples their good name


s: Maintaining- will in this wise yield thee proof:


s: Stout osier-baskets from the rafter-smoke,


s: And strainers of the winepress pluck thee down;


s: Spring-water mixed, be trampled to the full;


s: The moisture, mark you, will ooze all away,


s: In big drops issuing through the osier-withes,


s: But plainly will its taste the secret tell,


s: The mouths of them that try it. Rich soil again


s: We learn on this wise: tossed from hand to hand


s: Yet cracks it never, but pitch-like, as we hold,


s: Clings to the fingers. A land with moisture rife


s: Breeds lustier herbage, and is more than meet


s: O'er-fertile prove, or make too stout a show


s: At the first earing! Heavy land or light


s: The mute self-witness of its weight betrays.


s: A glance will serve to warn thee which is black,


s: To track the signs of that pernicious cold:


s: Pines only, noxious yews, and ivies dark


s: Regarding, let your land, ay, long before,


s: Scorch to the quick, and into trenches carve


s: The mighty mountains, and their upturned clods


s: Bare to the north wind, ere thou plant therein


s: The vine's prolific kindred. Fields whose soil


s: Is crumbling are the best: winds look to that,


s: And bitter hoar-frosts, and the delver's toil


s: Untiring, as he stirs the loosened glebe.


s: But those, whose vigilance no care escapes,


s: Search for a kindred site, where first to rear


s: A nursery for the trees, and eke whereto


s: Soon to translate them, lest the sudden shock


s: From their new mother the young plants estrange.


s: Nay, even the quarter of the sky they brand


s: Upon the bark, that each may be restored,


s: As erst it stood, here bore the southern heats,


s: Here turned its shoulder to the northern pole;


s: So strong is custom formed in early years.


s: Whether on hill or plain 'tis best to plant


s: Your vineyard first inquire. If on some plain


s: You measure out rich acres, then plant thick;


s: Then let the rows have room, so none the less


s: Each line you draw, when all the trees are set,


s: In mighty war, whenas the legion's length


s: Deploys its cohorts, and the column stands


s: And far and near with rippling sheen of arms


s: The wide earth flickers, nor yet in grisly strife


s: Foe grapples foe, but dubious 'twixt the hosts


s: The war-god wavers; so let all be ranged


s: But since not otherwise will earth afford


s: Have power to stretch them into open space.


s: Shouldst haply of the furrow's depth inquire,


s: The vine; but deeper in the ground is fixed


s: The tree that props it, aesculus in chief,


s: Which howso far its summit soars toward heaven,


s: So deep strikes root into the vaults of hell.


s: It therefore neither storms, nor blasts, nor showers


s: Wrench from its bed; unshaken it abides,


s: Of men roll onward, and survives them all,


s: Stretching its titan arms and branches far,


s: Sole central pillar of a world of shade.


s: Nor toward the sunset let thy vineyards slope,


s: Nor midst the vines plant hazel; neither take


s: The topmost shoots for cuttings, nor from the top


s: Of the supporting tree your suckers tear;


s: So deep their love of earth; nor wound the plants


s: With blunted blade; nor truncheons intersperse


s: Of the wild olive: for oft from careless swains


s: A spark hath fallen, that, 'neath the unctuous rind


s: Hid thief-like first, now grips the tough tree-bole,


s: And mounting to the leaves on high, sends forth


s: A roar to heaven, then coursing through the boughs


s: Wraps all the grove in robes of fire, and gross


s: With pitch-black vapour heaves the murky reek


s: Skyward, but chiefly if a storm has swooped


s: Rolls up the conflagration. When 'tis so,


s: Their root-force fails them, nor, when lopped away,


s: Can they recover, and from the earth beneath


s: Spring to like verdure; thus alone survives


s: The bare wild olive with its bitter leaves.


s: Let none persuade thee, howso weighty-wise,


s: To stir the soil when stiff with Boreas' breath.


s: Then ice-bound winter locks the fields, nor lets


s: The young plant fix its frozen root to earth.


s: Best sow your vineyards when in blushing Spring


s: Comes the white bird long-bodied snakes abhor,


s: Or on the eve of autumn's earliest frost,


s: Ere the swift sun-steeds touch the wintry Signs,


s: Blesses the fruit-plantation, Spring the groves;


s: In Spring earth swells and claims the fruitful seed.


s: Then Aether, sire omnipotent, leaps down


s: With quickening showers to his glad wife's embrace,


s: And, might with might commingling, rears to life


s: All germs that teem within her; then resound


s: With songs of birds the greenwood-wildernesses,


s: And in due time the herds their loves renew;


s: Then the boon earth yields increase, and the fields


s: Unlock their bosoms to the warm west winds;


s: Soft moisture spreads o'er all things, and the blades


s: Face the new suns, and safely trust them now;


s: The vine-shoot, fearless of the rising south,


s: Or mighty north winds driving rain from heaven,


s: Bursts into bud, and every leaf unfolds.


s: Even so, methinks, when Earth to being sprang,


s: Dawned the first days, and such the course they held;


s: 'Twas Spring-tide then, ay, Spring, the mighty world


s: Was keeping: Eurus spared his wintry blasts,


s: When first the flocks drank sunlight, and a race


s: Of men like iron from the hard glebe arose,


s: And wild beasts thronged the woods, and stars the heaven.


s: Nor could frail creatures bear this heavy strain,


s: 'Twixt frost and heat, and heaven's relenting arms


s: The sets thou plantest in thy fields, thereon


s: Strew refuse rich, and with abundant earth


s: Take heed to hide them, and dig in withal


s: Rough shells or porous stone, for therebetween


s: Will water trickle and fine vapour creep,


s: And so the plants their drooping spirits raise.


s: Aye, and there have been, who with weight of stone


s: Or heavy potsherd press them from above;


s: This serves for shield in pelting showers, and this


s: When the hot dog-star chaps the fields with drought.


s: The slips once planted, yet remains to cleave


s: The earth about their roots persistently,


s: And toss the cumbrous hoes, or task the soil


s: With burrowing plough-share, and ply up and down


s: Your labouring bullocks through the vineyard's midst,


s: Then too smooth reeds and shafts of whittled wand,


s: And ashen poles and sturdy forks to shape,


s: Whereby supported they may learn to mount,


s: Laugh at the gales, and through the elm-tops win


s: The leaves are in their first fresh infant growth,


s: Forbear their frailty, and while yet the bough


s: Shoots joyfully toward heaven, with loosened rein


s: Launched on the void, assail it not as yet


s: With keen-edged sickle, but let the leaves alone


s: Be culled with clip of fingers here and there.


s: But when they clasp the elms with sturdy trunks


s: Erect, then strip the leaves off, prune the boughs;


s: Sooner they shrink from steel, but then put forth


s: The arm of power, and stem the branchy tide.


s: Barred entrance, chiefly while the leaf is young


s: Beside harsh winters and o'erpowering sun,


s: Wild buffaloes and pestering goats for ay


s: Besport them, sheep and heifers glut their greed.


s: Nor cold by hoar-frost curdled, nor the prone


s: Dead weight of summer upon the parched crags,


s: So scathe it, as the flocks with venom-bite


s: Of their hard tooth, whose gnawing scars the stem.


s: For no offence but this to Bacchus bleeds


s: Upon the stage find entrance; therefore too


s: The sons of Theseus through the country-side-


s: Hamlet and crossway- set the prize of wit,


s: And on the smooth sward over oiled skins


s: Dance in their tipsy frolic. Furthermore


s: The Ausonian swains, a race from Troy derived,


s: Make merry with rough rhymes and boisterous mirth,


s: Grim masks of hollowed bark assume, invoke


s: Thee with glad hymns, O Bacchus, and to thee


s: Hang puppet-faces on tall pines to swing.


s: Hence every vineyard teems with mellowing fruit,


s: Till hollow vale o'erflows, and gorge profound,


s: Where'er the god hath turned his comely head.


s: Meet honour with ancestral hymns, and cates


s: And dishes bear him; and the doomed goat


s: Led by the horn shall at the altar stand,


s: Whose entrails rich on hazel-spits we'll roast.


s: This further task again, to dress the vine,


s: Hath needs beyond exhausting; the whole soil


s: Thrice, four times, yearly must be cleft, the sod


s: With hoes reversed be crushed continually,


s: The whole plantation lightened of its leaves.


s: Round on the labourer spins the wheel of toil,


s: As on its own track rolls the circling year.


s: Soon as the vine her lingering leaves hath shed,


s: And the chill north wind from the forests shook


s: Their coronal, even then the careful swain


s: Looks keenly forward to the coming year,


s: With Saturn's curved fang pursues and prunes


s: The vine forlorn, and lops it into shape.


s: Be first to dig the ground up, first to clear


s: And burn the refuse-branches, first to house


s: Again your vine-poles, last to gather fruit.


s: Twice doth the thickening shade beset the vine,


s: Twice weeds with stifling briers o'ergrow the crop;


s: And each a toilsome labour. Do thou praise


s: Broad acres, farm but few. Rough twigs beside


s: Of butcher's broom among the woods are cut,


s: And reeds upon the river-banks, and still


s: The undressed willow claims thy fostering care.


s: So now the vines are fettered, now the trees


s: Let go the sickle, and the last dresser now


s: Sings of his finished rows; but still the ground


s: Must vexed be, the dust be stirred, and heaven


s: Still set thee trembling for the ripened grapes.


s: Not so with olives; small husbandry need they,


s: Nor look for sickle bowed or biting rake,


s: When once they have gripped the soil, and borne the breeze.


s: Earth of herself, with hooked fang laid bare,


s: Yields moisture for the plants, and heavy fruit,


s: The ploughshare aiding; therewithal thou'lt rear


s: The olive's fatness well-beloved of Peace.


s: Apples, moreover, soon as first they feel


s: Their stems wax lusty, and have found their strength,


s: To heaven climb swiftly, self-impelled, nor crave


s: Our succour. All the grove meanwhile no less


s: With fruit is swelling, and the wild haunts of birds


s: Blush with their blood-red berries. Cytisus


s: Is good to browse on, the tall forest yields


s: Pine-torches, and the nightly fires are fed


s: And shoot forth radiance. And shall men be loath


s: To plant, nor lavish of their pains? Why trace


s: Things mightier? Willows even and lowly brooms


s: To cattle their green leaves, to shepherds shade,


s: Fences for crops, and food for honey yield.


s: Waving with box, Narycian groves of pitch;


s: Oh! blithe the sight of fields beholden not


s: To rake or man's endeavour! the barren woods


s: That crown the scalp of Caucasus, even these,


s: Which furious blasts for ever rive and rend,


s: Yield various wealth, pine-logs that serve for ships,


s: Hence, too, the farmers shave their wheel-spokes, hence


s: Drums for their wains, and curved boat-keels fit;


s: Willows bear twigs enow, the elm-tree leaves,


s: Myrtle stout spear-shafts, war-tried cornel too;


s: Nor do smooth lindens or lathe-polished box


s: Shrink from man's shaping and keen-furrowing steel;


s: Light alder floats upon the boiling flood


s: Sped down the Padus, and bees house their swarms


s: In rotten holm-oak's hollow bark and bole.


s: What of like praise can Bacchus' gifts afford?


s: Nay, Bacchus even to crime hath prompted, he


s: The wine-infuriate Centaurs quelled with death,


s: Rhoetus and Pholus, and with mighty bowl


s: Could they but know their blessedness, for whom


s: Far from the clash of arms all-equal earth


s: Pours from the ground herself their easy fare!


s: What though no lofty palace portal-proud


s: From all its chambers vomits forth a tide


s: Of morning courtiers, nor agape they gaze


s: On pillars with fair tortoise-shell inwrought,


s: Gold-purfled robes, and bronze from Ephyre;


s: Nor is the whiteness of their wool distained


s: With drugs Assyrian, nor clear olive's use


s: With cassia tainted; yet untroubled calm,


s: A life that knows no falsehood, rich enow


s: With various treasures, yet broad-acred ease,


s: Grottoes and living lakes, yet Tempes cool,


s: Lowing of kine, and sylvan slumbers soft,


s: They lack not; lawns and wild beasts' haunts are there,


s: Worship, and reverend sires: with them from earth


s: Departing justice her last footprints left.


s: Me before all things may the Muses sweet,


s: Whose rites I bear with mighty passion pierced,


s: Receive, and show the paths and stars of heaven,


s: The sun's eclipses and the labouring moons,


s: From whence the earthquake, by what power the seas


s: Swell from their depths, and, every barrier burst,


s: Sink back upon themselves, why winter-suns


s: So haste to dip 'neath ocean, or what check


s: High realms of nature the cold curdling blood


s: About my heart bar access, then be fields


s: And stream-washed vales my solace, let me love


s: Rivers and woods, inglorious. Oh for you


s: By Spartan maids o'er-revelled! Oh, for one,


s: Would set me in deep dells of Haemus cool,


s: And shield me with his boughs' o'ershadowing might!


s: Nature's hid causes, and beneath his feet


s: All terrors cast, and death's relentless doom,


s: Blest too is he who knows the rural gods,


s: Pan, old Silvanus, and the sister-nymphs!


s: Him nor the rods of public power can bend,


s: Nor kingly purple, nor fierce feud that drives


s: Of Dacian from the Danube's leagued flood,


s: Nor Rome's great State, nor kingdoms like to die;


s: Nor hath he grieved through pitying of the poor,


s: Nor envied him that hath. What fruit the boughs,


s: And what the fields, of their own bounteous will


s: Have borne, he gathers; nor iron rule of laws,


s: Nor maddened Forum have his eyes beheld,


s: The darksome gulfs of Ocean with their oars,


s: Or rush on steel: they press within the courts


s: And doors of princes; one with havoc falls


s: From gems to drink, on Tyrian rugs to lie;


s: This hoards his wealth and broods o'er buried gold;


s: One at the rostra stares in blank amaze;


s: One gaping sits transported by the cheers,


s: The answering cheers of plebs and senate rolled


s: Along the benches: bathed in brothers' blood


s: Men revel, and, all delights of hearth and home


s: With hooked ploughshare turns the soil; from hence


s: Springs his year's labour; hence, too, he sustains


s: Country and cottage homestead, and from hence


s: His herds of cattle and deserving steers.


s: No respite! still the year o'erflows with fruit,


s: Or young of kine, or Ceres' wheaten sheaf,


s: With crops the furrow loads, and bursts the barns.


s: Winter is come: in olive-mills they bruise


s: The swine troop homeward; woods their arbutes yield;


s: So, various fruit sheds Autumn, and high up


s: On sunny rocks the mellowing vintage bakes.


s: Meanwhile about his lips sweet children cling;


s: His chaste house keeps its purity; his kine


s: Drop milky udders, and on the lush green grass


s: Fat kids are striving, horn to butting horn.


s: Himself keeps holy days; stretched o'er the sward,


s: Where round the fire his comrades crown the bowl,


s: He pours libation, and thy name invokes,


s: Sets up a mark for the swift javelin; they


s: Strip their tough bodies for the rustic sport.


s: Such life of yore the ancient Sabines led,


s: Such Remus and his brother: Etruria thus,


s: Doubt not, to greatness grew, and Rome became


s: The fair world's fairest, and with circling wall


s: Clasped to her single breast the sevenfold hills.


s: Ay, ere the reign of Dicte's king, ere men,


s: Waxed godless, banqueted on slaughtered bulls,


s: Such life on earth did golden Saturn lead.


s: Nor ear of man had heard the war-trump's blast,


s: Nor clang of sword on stubborn anvil set.


s: But lo! a boundless space we have travelled o'er;


s: 'Tis time our steaming horses to unyoke.


s: Thee too, great Pales, will I hymn, and thee,


s: You, woods and waves Lycaean. All themes beside,


s: Which else had charmed the vacant mind with song,


s: Are now waxed common. Of harsh Eurystheus who


s: The story knows not, or that praiseless king


s: Hath not the tale been told of Hylas young,


s: And Pelops for his ivory shoulder famed,


s: Keen charioteer? Needs must a path be tried,


s: By which I too may lift me from the dust,


s: And float triumphant through the mouths of men.


s: Yea, I shall be the first, so life endure,


s: To mine own country from the Aonian height;


s: I, Mantua, first will bring thee back the palms


s: On thy green plain fast by the water-side,


s: Where Mincius winds more vast in lazy coils,


s: And rims his margent with the tender reed.


s: Amid my shrine shall Caesar's godhead dwell.


s: A hundred four-horse cars. All Greece for me,


s: On foot shall strive, or with the raw-hide glove;


s: Whilst I, my head with stripped green olive crowned,


s: To lead the high processions to the fane,


s: And view the victims felled; or how the scene


s: Sunders with shifted face, and Britain's sons


s: Inwoven thereon with those proud curtains rise.


s: I'll trace the battle of the Gangarides,


s: And our Quirinus' conquering arms, and there


s: Surging with war, and hugely flowing, the Nile,


s: And columns heaped on high with naval brass.


s: And Asia's vanquished cities I will add,


s: And quelled Niphates, and the Parthian foe,


s: Who trusts in flight and backward-volleying darts,


s: And trophies torn with twice triumphant hand


s: From empires twain on ocean's either shore.


s: And breathing forms of Parian marble there


s: Shall stand, the offspring of Assaracus,


s: And great names of the Jove-descended folk,


s: And father Tros, and Troy's first founder, lord


s: Shall dread the Furies, and thy ruthless flood,


s: And that vast wheel and ever-baffling stone.


s: Meanwhile the Dryad-haunted woods and lawns


s: Unsullied seek we; 'tis thy hard behest,


s: My mind essays. Up! break the sluggish bonds


s: Of tarriance; with loud din Cithaeron calls,


s: The fiery fights of Caesar, speed his name


s: Through ages, countless as to Caesar's self


s: From the first birth-dawn of Tithonus old.


s: One breed the horse, or bullock strong to plough,


s: Be his prime care a shapely dam to choose.


s: Of kine grim-faced is goodliest, with coarse head


s: And burly neck, whose hanging dewlaps reach


s: From chin to knee; of boundless length her flank;


s: Large every way she is, large-footed even,


s: With incurved horns and shaggy ears beneath.


s: Nor let mislike me one with spots of white


s: Conspicuous, or that spurns the yoke, whose horn


s: At times hath vice in't: liker bull-faced she,


s: And tall-limbed wholly, and with tip of tail


s: Brushing her footsteps as she walks along.


s: The age for Hymen's rites, Lucina's pangs,


s: Nor strong for ploughing. Meantime, while youth's delight


s: Survives within them, loose the males: be first


s: To speed thy herds of cattle to their loves,


s: Breed stock with stock, and keep the race supplied.


s: Ah! life's best hours are ever first to fly


s: From hapless mortals; in their place succeed


s: Disease and dolorous eld; till travail sore


s: And death unpitying sweep them from the scene.


s: Still will be some, whose form thou fain wouldst change;


s: Renew them still; with yearly choice of young


s: Preventing losses, lest too late thou rue.


s: Nor steeds crave less selection; but on those


s: Thou think'st to rear, the promise of their line,


s: From earliest youth thy chiefest pains bestow.


s: See from the first yon high-bred colt afield,


s: His lofty step, his limbs' elastic tread:


s: Dauntless he leads the herd, still first to try


s: The threatening flood, or brave the unknown bridge,


s: By no vain noise affrighted; lofty-necked,


s: With clean-cut head, short belly, and stout back;


s: His sprightly breast exuberant with brawn.


s: Chestnut and grey are good; the worst-hued white


s: And sorrel. Then lo! if arms are clashed afar,


s: Bide still he cannot: ears stiffen and limbs quake;


s: His nostrils snort and roll out wreaths of fire.


s: Dense is his mane, that when uplifted falls


s: On his right shoulder; betwixt either loin


s: The spine runs double; his earth-dinting hoof


s: Rings with the ponderous beat of solid horn.


s: Even such a horse was Cyllarus, reined and tamed


s: In Grecian song renowned, those steeds of Mars,


s: And famed Achilles' team: in such-like form


s: Great Saturn's self with mane flung loose on neck


s: Sped at his wife's approach, and flying filled


s: The heights of Pelion with his piercing neigh.


s: Even him, when sore disease or sluggish eld


s: Now saps his strength, pen fast at home, and spare


s: His not inglorious age. A horse grown old


s: Slow kindling unto love in vain prolongs


s: The fruitless task, and, to the encounter come,


s: As fire in stubble blusters without strength,


s: He rages idly. Therefore mark thou first


s: Their age and mettle, other points anon,


s: As breed and lineage, or what pain was theirs


s: To lose the race, what pride the palm to win.


s: Poured from the barrier grip the course and go,


s: When youthful hope is highest, and every heart


s: Drained with each wild pulsation? How they ply


s: The circling lash, and reaching forward let


s: The reins hang free! Swift spins the glowing wheel;


s: And now they stoop, and now erect in air


s: Seem borne through space and towering to the sky:


s: No stop, no stay; the dun sand whirls aloft;


s: They reek with foam-flakes and pursuing breath;


s: So sweet is fame, so prized the victor's palm.


s: 'Twas Ericthonius first took heart to yoke


s: The whirling wheels to victory: but the ring


s: And bridle-reins, mounted on horses' backs,


s: And taught the knight in arms to spurn the ground,


s: And arch the upgathered footsteps of his pride.


s: Each task alike is arduous, and for each


s: A horse young, fiery, swift of foot, they seek;


s: How oft so-e'er yon rival may have chased


s: The flying foe, or boast his native plain


s: And trace his lineage back to Neptune's birth.


s: These points regarded, as the time draws nigh,


s: With instant zeal they lavish all their care


s: To plump with solid fat the chosen chief


s: And flowery herbs they cut, and serve him well


s: With corn and running water, that his strength


s: Not fail him for that labour of delight,


s: To leanness, and when love's sweet longing first


s: Provokes them, they forbid the leafy food,


s: And pen them from the springs, and oft beside


s: With running shake, and tire them in the sun,


s: What time the threshing-floor groans heavily


s: With pounding of the corn-ears, and light chaff


s: Is whirled on high to catch the rising west.


s: This do they that the soil's prolific powers


s: May not be dulled by surfeiting, nor choke


s: The sluggish furrows, but eagerly absorb


s: Their fill of love, and deeply entertain.


s: To care of sire the mother's care succeeds.


s: When great with young they wander nigh their time,


s: In heavy wains, nor leap across the way,


s: Nor scour the meads, nor swim the rushing flood.


s: In lonely lawns they feed them, by the course


s: Of brimming streams, where moss is, and the banks


s: With grass are greenest, where are sheltering caves,


s: And far outstretched the rock-flung shadow lies.


s: Round wooded Silarus and the ilex-bowers


s: Termed Oestros- fierce it is, and harshly hums,


s: Driving whole herds in terror through the groves,


s: Till heaven is madded by their bellowing din,


s: With this same scourge did Juno wreak of old


s: The terrors of her wrath, a plague devised


s: From this too thou, since in the noontide heats


s: 'Tis most persistent, fend thy teeming herds,


s: And feed them when the sun is newly risen,


s: Or the first stars are ushering in the night.


s: But, yeaning ended, all their tender care


s: Is to the calves transferred; at once with marks


s: They brand them, both to designate their race,


s: And which to rear for breeding, or devote


s: As altar-victims, or to cleave the ground


s: The rest along the greensward graze at will.


s: Those that to rustic uses thou wouldst mould,


s: As calves encourage and take steps to tame,


s: While pliant wills and plastic youth allow.


s: And first of slender withies round the throat


s: Loose collars hang, then when their free-born necks


s: Are used to service, with the self-same bands


s: Yoke them in pairs, and steer by steer compel


s: Keep pace together. And time it is that oft


s: Unfreighted wheels be drawn along the ground


s: Behind them, as to dint the surface-dust;


s: Then let the beechen axle strain and creak


s: 'Neath some stout burden, whilst a brazen pole


s: Drags on the wheels made fast thereto. Meanwhile


s: For their unbroken youth not grass alone,


s: Nor meagre willow-leaves and marish-sedge,


s: But corn-ears with thy hand pluck from the crops.


s: Nor shall the brood-kine, as of yore, for thee


s: Brim high the snowy milking-pail, but spend


s: Their udders' fullness on their own sweet young.


s: But if fierce squadrons and the ranks of war


s: Delight thee rather, or on wheels to glide


s: The flying chariot, be your steed's first task


s: To face the warrior's armed rage, and brook


s: The trumpet, and long roar of rumbling wheels,


s: And clink of chiming bridles in the stall;


s: Then more and more to love his master's voice


s: Caressing, or loud hand that claps his neck.


s: Ay, thus far let him learn to dare, when first


s: Weaned from his mother, and his mouth at times


s: Yield to the supple halter, even while yet


s: Weak, tottering-limbed, and ignorant of life.


s: But, three years ended, when the fourth arrives,


s: With rhythmic hoof-beat echoing, and now learn


s: And be like one that struggleth; then at last


s: Challenge the winds to race him, and at speed


s: Launched through the open, like a reinless thing,


s: Scarce print his footsteps on the surface-sand.


s: As when with power from Hyperborean climes


s: The north wind stoops, and scatters from his path


s: Dry clouds and storms of Scythia; the tall corn


s: And rippling plains 'gin shiver with light gusts;


s: Long waves come racing shoreward: fast he flies,


s: With instant pinion sweeping earth and main.


s: A steed like this or on the mighty course


s: Of Elis at the goal will sweat, and shower


s: Red foam-flakes from his mouth, or, kindlier task,


s: With patient neck support the Belgian car.


s: Then, broken at last, let swell their burly frame


s: With fattening corn-mash, for, unbroke, they will


s: With pride wax wanton, and, when caught, refuse


s: Tough lash to brook or jagged curb obey.


s: As love's blind stings of passion to forefend,


s: Whether on steed or steer thy choice be set.


s: Ay, therefore 'tis they banish bulls afar


s: Some mountain-barrier, or broad streams beyond,


s: Or else in plenteous stalls pen fast at home.


s: For, even through sight of her, the female wastes


s: His strength with smouldering fire, till he forget


s: Both grass and woodland. She indeed full oft


s: With her sweet charms can lovers proud compel


s: To battle for the conquest horn to horn.


s: While each on each the furious rivals run;


s: Wound follows wound; the black blood laves their limbs;


s: Horns push and strive against opposing horns,


s: With mighty groaning; all the forest-side


s: Nor wont the champions in one stall to couch;


s: But he that's worsted hies him to strange climes


s: Far off, an exile, moaning much the shame,


s: The blows of that proud conqueror, then love's loss


s: Avenged not; with one glance toward the byre,


s: So with all heed his strength he practiseth,


s: And nightlong makes the hard bare stones his bed,


s: And feeds on prickly leaf and pointed rush,


s: And proves himself, and butting at a tree


s: Learns to fling wrath into his horns, with blows


s: Provokes the air, and scattering clouds of sand


s: With strength repaired and gathered might breaks camp,


s: And hurls him headlong on the unthinking foe:


s: Begins to whiten, mustering from the main


s: Its rounded breast, and, onward rolled to land


s: Falls with prodigious roar among the rocks,


s: Upseethe in swirling eddies, and disgorge


s: The murky sand-lees from their sunken bed.


s: Nay, every race on earth of men, and beasts,


s: And ocean-folk, and flocks, and painted birds,


s: Rush to the raging fire: love sways them all.


s: Never than then more fiercely o'er the plain


s: Prowls heedless of her whelps the lioness:


s: Nor monstrous bears such wide-spread havoc-doom


s: Deal through the forests; then the boar is fierce,


s: Most deadly then the tigress: then, alack!


s: Ill roaming is it on Libya's lonely plains.


s: Mark you what shivering thrills the horse's frame,


s: If but a waft the well-known gust conveys?


s: Nor curb can check them then, nor lash severe,


s: Nor rocks and caverned crags, nor barrier-floods,


s: That rend and whirl and wash the hills away.


s: Then speeds amain the great Sabellian boar,


s: His tushes whets, with forefoot tears the ground,


s: Rubs 'gainst a tree his flanks, and to and fro


s: Hardens each wallowing shoulder to the wound.


s: What of the youth, when love's relentless might


s: Stirs the fierce fire within his veins? Behold!


s: In blindest midnight how he swims the gulf


s: Convulsed with bursting storm-clouds! Over him


s: Heaven's huge gate thunders; the rock-shattered main


s: Utters a warning cry; nor parents' tears


s: Can backward call him, nor the maid he loves,


s: What of the spotted ounce to Bacchus dear,


s: Or warlike wolf-kin or the breed of dogs?


s: Why tell how timorous stags the battle join?


s: O'er all conspicuous is the rage of mares,


s: By Venus' self inspired of old, what time


s: The Potnian four with rending jaws devoured


s: The limbs of Glaucus. Love-constrained they roam


s: Past Gargarus, past the loud Ascanian flood;


s: They climb the mountains, and the torrents swim;


s: And when their eager marrow first conceives


s: The fire, in Spring-tide chiefly, for with Spring


s: Warmth doth their frames revisit, then they stand


s: All facing westward on the rocky heights,


s: And of the gentle breezes take their fill;


s: But of the wind impregnate, far and wide


s: O'er craggy height and lowly vale they scud,


s: Not toward thy rising, Eurus, or the sun's,


s: But westward and north-west, or whence up-springs


s: Black Auster, that glooms heaven with rainy cold.


s: Hence from their groin slow drips a poisonous juice,


s: Hippomanes, fell stepdames oft have culled,


s: And mixed with herbs and spells of baneful bode.


s: Fast flies meanwhile the irreparable hour,


s: As point to point our charmed round we trace.


s: Enough of herds. This second task remains,


s: The wool-clad flocks and shaggy goats to treat.


s: Here lies a labour; hence for glory look,


s: How hard it is for words to triumph here,


s: And shed their lustre on a theme so slight:


s: To walk the heights, from whence no earlier track


s: Slopes gently downward to Castalia's spring.


s: First, for the sheep soft pencotes I decree


s: To browse in, till green summer's swift return;


s: And that the hard earth under them with straw


s: And handfuls of the fern be littered deep,


s: Lest chill of ice such tender cattle harm


s: With scab and loathly foot-rot. Passing thence


s: I bid the goats with arbute-leaves be stored,


s: And served with fresh spring-water, and their pens


s: Turned southward from the blast, to face the suns


s: Now sinks in showers upon the parting year.


s: These too no lightlier our protection claim,


s: Repay the barterer; these with offspring teem


s: More numerous; these yield plenteous store of milk:


s: The more each dry-wrung udder froths the pail,


s: More copious soon the teat-pressed torrents flow.


s: Ay, and on Cinyps' bank the he-goats too


s: Their beards and grizzled chins and bristling hair


s: Let clip for camp-use, or as rugs to wrap


s: Seafaring wretches. But they browse the woods


s: And summits of Lycaeus, and rough briers,


s: And brakes that love the highland: of themselves


s: Right heedfully the she-goats homeward troop


s: Before their kids, and with plump udders clogged


s: Scarce cross the threshold. Wherefore rather ye,


s: The less they crave man's vigilance, be fain


s: From ice to fend them and from snowy winds;


s: Bring food and feast them with their branchy fare,


s: Nor lock your hay-loft all the winter long.


s: But when glad summer at the west wind's call


s: Sends either flock to pasture in the glades,


s: Soon as the day-star shineth, hie we then


s: To the cool meadows, while the dawn is young,


s: The grass yet hoary, and to browsing herds


s: The dew tastes sweetest on the tender sward.


s: When heaven's fourth hour draws on the thickening drought,


s: And shrill cicalas pierce the brake with song,


s: Then at the well-springs bid them, or deep pools,


s: From troughs of holm-oak quaff the running wave:


s: But at day's hottest seek a shadowy vale,


s: Where some vast ancient-timbered oak of Jove


s: Spreads his huge branches, or where huddling black


s: Then once more give them water sparingly,


s: And feed once more, till sunset, when cool eve


s: Allays the air, and dewy moonbeams slake


s: The forest glades, with halcyon's song the shore,


s: And every thicket with the goldfinch rings.


s: Of Libya's shepherds why the tale pursue?


s: Why sing their pastures and the scattered huts


s: They house in? Oft their cattle day and night


s: Graze the whole month together, and go forth


s: So flat the plain and boundless. All his goods


s: The Afric swain bears with him, house and home,


s: As some keen Roman in his country's arms


s: Plies the swift march beneath a cruel load;


s: Soon with tents pitched and at his post he stands,


s: Ere looked for by the foe. Not thus the tribes


s: Where turbid Ister whirls his yellow sands,


s: And Rhodope stretched out beneath the pole


s: Comes trending backward. There the herds they keep


s: Close-pent in byres, nor any grass is seen


s: Upon the plain, nor leaves upon the tree:


s: But with snow-ridges and deep frost afar


s: Heaped seven ells high the earth lies featureless:


s: Still winter? still the north wind's icy breath!


s: Nay, never sun disparts the shadows pale,


s: Or as he rides the steep of heaven, or dips


s: Quick ice-crusts curdle on the running stream,


s: And iron-hooped wheels the water's back now bears,


s: To broad wains opened, as erewhile to ships;


s: Brass vessels oft asunder burst, and clothes


s: They cleave with axes; to one frozen mass


s: Whole pools are turned; and on their untrimmed beards


s: Stiff clings the jagged icicle. Meanwhile


s: All heaven no less is filled with falling snow;


s: Stand island-like amid the frost, and stags


s: In huddling herds, by that strange weight benumbed,


s: Scarce top the surface with their antler-points.


s: These with no hounds they hunt, nor net with toils,


s: Nor scare with terror of the crimson plume;


s: But, as in vain they breast the opposing block,


s: Butcher them, knife in hand, and so dispatch


s: Loud-bellowing, and with glad shouts hale them home.


s: Themselves in deep-dug caverns underground


s: Dwell free and careless; to their hearths they heave


s: Oak-logs and elm-trees whole, and fire them there,


s: There play the night out, and in festive glee


s: With barm and service sour the wine-cup mock.


s: So 'neath the seven-starred Hyperborean wain


s: The folk live tameless, buffeted with blasts


s: Their bodies in the tawny fells of beasts.


s: If wool delight thee, first, be far removed


s: All prickly boskage, burrs and caltrops; shun


s: Luxuriant pastures; at the outset choose


s: White flocks with downy fleeces. For the ram,


s: How white soe'er himself, be but the tongue


s: 'Neath his moist palate black, reject him, lest


s: He sully with dark spots his offspring's fleece,


s: And seek some other o'er the teeming plain.


s: Even with such snowy bribe of wool, if ear


s: Snared and beguiled thee, Luna, calling thee


s: To the deep woods; nor thou didst spurn his call.


s: But who for milk hath longing, must himself


s: With salt herbs to the cote, whence more they love


s: The streams, more stretch their udders, and give back


s: Many there be who from their mothers keep


s: The new-born kids, and straightway bind their mouths


s: With iron-tipped muzzles. What they milk at dawn,


s: Or in the daylight hours, at night they press;


s: What darkling or at sunset, this ere morn


s: The shepherd hies him- or with dash of salt


s: Just sprinkle, and lay by for winter use.


s: Nor be thy dogs last cared for; but alike


s: Swift Spartan hounds and fierce Molossian feed


s: On fattening whey. Never, with these to watch,


s: Dread nightly thief afold and ravening wolves,


s: And oft the shy wild asses thou wilt chase,


s: With hounds, too, hunt the hare, with hounds the doe;


s: Oft from his woodland wallowing-den uprouse


s: The boar, and scare him with their baying, and drive,


s: And o'er the mountains urge into the toils


s: Some antlered monster to their chiming cry.


s: Within the stalls, and snakes of noxious smell


s: Oft under long-neglected cribs, or lurks


s: The light in terror, or some snake, that wont


s: 'Neath shade and sheltering roof to creep, and shower


s: Its bane among the cattle, hugs the ground,


s: Fell scourge of kine. Shepherd, seize stakes, seize stones!


s: A hissing throat, down with him! see how low


s: That cowering crest is vailed in flight, the while,


s: His midmost coils and final sweep of tail


s: Relaxing, the last fold drags lingering spires.


s: Then that vile worm that in Calabrian glades


s: Uprears his breast, and wreathes a scaly back,


s: His length of belly pied with mighty spots-


s: While from their founts gush any streams, while yet


s: With showers of Spring and rainy south-winds earth


s: Is moistened, lo! he haunts the pools, and here


s: Housed in the banks, with fish and chattering frogs


s: Crams the black void of his insatiate maw.


s: Soon as the fens are parched, and earth with heat


s: Rolls eyes of fire and rages through the fields,


s: Furious from thirst and by the drought dismayed.


s: Me list not then beneath the open heaven


s: To snatch soft slumber, nor on forest-ridge


s: Lie stretched along the grass, when, slipped his slough,


s: To glittering youth transformed he winds his spires,


s: And eggs or younglings leaving in his lair,


s: Towers sunward, lightening with three-forked tongue.


s: Of sickness, too, the causes and the signs


s: I'll teach thee. Loathly scab assails the sheep,


s: When chilly showers have probed them to the quick,


s: And winter stark with hoar-frost, or when sweat


s: Unpurged cleaves to them after shearing done,


s: And rough thorns rend their bodies. Hence it is


s: Shepherds their whole flock steep in running streams,


s: While, plunged beneath the flood, with drenched fell,


s: The ram, launched free, goes drifting down the tide.


s: Else, having shorn, they smear their bodies o'er


s: With acrid oil-lees, and mix silver-scum


s: Wax mollified with ointment, and therewith


s: Sea-leek, strong hellebores, bitumen black.


s: Yet ne'er doth kindlier fortune crown his toil,


s: Than if with blade of iron a man dare lance


s: The ulcer's mouth ope: for the taint is fed


s: And quickened by confinement; while the swain


s: His hand of healing from the wound withholds,


s: Or sits for happier signs imploring heaven.


s: Aye, and when inward to the bleater's bones


s: The pain hath sunk and rages, and their limbs


s: By thirsty fever are consumed, 'tis good


s: To draw the enkindled heat therefrom, and pierce


s: Within the hoof-clefts a blood-bounding vein.


s: He flies, or Getic desert, and quaffs milk


s: Oft to the shade's mild covert win, or pull


s: The grass tops listlessly, or hindmost lag,


s: Or, browsing, cast her down amid the plain,


s: With quick knife check the mischief, ere it creep


s: With dire contagion through the unwary herd.


s: Less thick and fast the whirlwind scours the main


s: With tempest in its wake, than swarm the plagues


s: Of cattle; nor seize they single lives alone,


s: But sudden clear whole feeding grounds, the flock


s: With all its promise, and extirpate the breed.


s: Well would he trow it who, so long after, still


s: High Alps and Noric hill-forts should behold,


s: Ay, still behold the shepherds' realms a waste,


s: Here from distempered heavens erewhile arose


s: A piteous season, with the full fierce heat


s: Of autumn glowed, and cattle-kindreds all


s: And all wild creatures to destruction gave,


s: Tainted the pools, the fodder charged with bane.


s: Nor simple was the way of death, but when


s: Hot thirst through every vein impelled had drawn


s: Their wretched limbs together, anon o'erflowed


s: A watery flux, and all their bones piecemeal


s: Sapped by corruption to itself absorbed.


s: Oft in mid sacrifice to heaven- the white


s: Wool-woven fillet half wreathed about his brow-


s: Some victim, standing by the altar, there


s: Betwixt the loitering carles a-dying fell:


s: Or, if betimes the slaughtering priest had struck,


s: Nor with its heaped entrails blazed the pile,


s: Nor seer to seeker thence could answer yield;


s: Nay, scarce the up-stabbing knife with blood was stained,


s: Scarce sullied with thin gore the surface-sand.


s: Hence die the calves in many a pasture fair,


s: Or at full cribs their lives' sweet breath resign;


s: Hence on the fawning dog comes madness, hence


s: Racks the sick swine a gasping cough that chokes


s: With swelling at the jaws: the conquering steed,


s: Uncrowned of effort and heedless of the sward,


s: Faints, turns him from the springs, and paws the earth


s: With ceaseless hoof: low droop his ears, wherefrom


s: Bursts fitful sweat, a sweat that waxes cold


s: These earlier signs they give that presage doom.


s: But, if the advancing plague 'gin fiercer grow,


s: Then are their eyes all fire, deep-drawn their breath,


s: At times groan-laboured: with long sobbing heave


s: Their lowest flanks; from either nostril streams


s: Black blood; a rough tongue clogs the obstructed jaws.


s: 'Twas helpful through inverted horn to pour


s: Draughts of the wine-god down; sole way it seemed


s: To save the dying: soon this too proved their bane,


s: And, reinvigorate but with frenzy's fire,


s: Even at death's pinch- the gods some happier fate


s: Deal to the just, such madness to their foes-


s: Each with bared teeth his own limbs mangling tore.


s: See! as he smokes beneath the stubborn share,


s: The bull drops, vomiting foam-dabbled gore,


s: And heaves his latest groans. Sad goes the swain,


s: Unhooks the steer that mourns his fellow's fate,


s: And in mid labour leaves the plough-gear fast.


s: Nor tall wood's shadow, nor soft sward may stir


s: That heart's emotion, nor rock-channelled flood,


s: More pure than amber speeding to the plain:


s: But see! his flanks fail under him, his eyes


s: Are dulled with deadly torpor, and his neck


s: Sinks to the earth with drooping weight. What now


s: Besteads him toil or service? to have turned


s: The heavy sod with ploughshare? And yet these


s: Ne'er knew the Massic wine-god's baneful boon,


s: Nor twice replenished banquets: but on leaves


s: They fare, and virgin grasses, and their cups


s: Are crystal springs and streams with running tired,


s: Their healthful slumbers never broke by care.


s: Then only, say they, through that country side


s: For Juno's rites were cattle far to seek,


s: And ill-matched buffaloes the chariots drew


s: To their high fanes. So, painfully with rakes


s: They grub the soil, aye, with their very nails


s: Dig in the corn-seeds, and with strained neck


s: O'er the high uplands drag the creaking wains.


s: Nor round the flock prowls nightly; pain more sharp


s: Subdues him: the shy deer and fleet-foot stags


s: With hounds now wander by the haunts of men


s: Vast ocean's offspring, and all tribes that swim,


s: On the shore's confine the wave washes up,


s: Like shipwrecked bodies: seals, unwonted there,


s: For all his den's close winding, and with scales


s: Brooks not the very birds, that headlong fall,


s: And leave their life beneath the soaring cloud.


s: Moreover now nor change of fodder serves,


s: And subtlest cures but injure; then were foiled


s: The masters, Chiron sprung from Phillyron,


s: From Stygian darkness launched into the light


s: Still rearing higher that all-devouring head.


s: With bleat of flocks and lowings thick resound


s: Rivers and parched banks and sloping heights.


s: At last in crowds she slaughters them, she chokes


s: The very stalls with carrion-heaps that rot


s: With earth to cover them, in pits to hide.


s: For e'en the fells are useless; nor the flesh


s: With water may they purge, or tame with fire,


s: Nor shear the fleeces even, gnawed through and through


s: With foul disease, nor touch the putrid webs;


s: But, had one dared the loathly weeds to try,


s: Red blisters and an unclean sweat o'erran


s: His noisome limbs, till, no long tarriance made,


s: The fiery curse his tainted frame devoured.


s: Of air-born honey, gift of heaven, I now


s: Take up the tale. Upon this theme no less


s: Look thou, Maecenas, with indulgent eye.


s: High-hearted chiefs, a nation's history,


s: Its traits, its bent, its battles and its clans,


s: All, each, shall pass before you, while I sing.


s: Slight though the poet's theme, not slight the praise,


s: So frown not heaven, and Phoebus hear his call.


s: First find your bees a settled sure abode,


s: Where neither winds can enter (winds blow back


s: Nor sheep and butting kids tread down the flowers,


s: Nor heifer wandering wide upon the plain


s: Dash off the dew, and bruise the springing blades.


s: His scale-clad body from their honied stalls,


s: And the bee-eater, and what birds beside,


s: And Procne smirched with blood upon the breast


s: From her own murderous hands. For these roam wide


s: Wasting all substance, or the bees themselves


s: Strike flying, and in their beaks bear home, to glut


s: Those savage nestlings with the dainty prey.


s: But let clear springs and moss-green pools be near,


s: And through the grass a streamlet hurrying run,


s: Some palm-tree o'er the porch extend its shade,


s: Their own sweet Spring-tide, when the new-made chiefs


s: Lead forth the young swarms, and, escaped their comb,


s: The colony comes forth to sport and play,


s: The neighbouring bank may lure them from the heat,


s: Or bough befriend with hospitable shade.


s: O'er the mid-waters, whether swift or still,


s: Cast willow-branches and big stones enow,


s: Bridge after bridge, where they may footing find


s: And spread their wide wings to the summer sun,


s: Have dashed with spray or plunged them in the deep.


s: And let green cassias and far-scented thymes,


s: Bloom round about, and violet-beds hard by


s: Sip sweetness from the fertilizing springs.


s: For the hive's self, or stitched of hollow bark,


s: Or from tough osier woven, let the doors


s: Be strait of entrance; for stiff winter's cold


s: Congeals the honey, and heat resolves and thaws,


s: To bees alike disastrous; not for naught


s: That pierce their walls, and fill the crevices


s: With pollen from the flowers, and glean and keep


s: To this same end the glue, that binds more fast


s: Than bird-lime or the pitch from Ida's pines.


s: Oft too in burrowed holes, if fame be true,


s: And deeply lodged in hollow rocks are found,


s: Thou not the less smear round their crannied cribs


s: With warm smooth mud-coat, and strew leaves above;


s: But near their home let neither yew-tree grow,


s: Nor reddening crabs be roasted, and mistrust


s: Deep marish-ground and mire with noisome smell,


s: Or where the hollow rocks sonorous ring,


s: And the word spoken buffets and rebounds.


s: What more? When now the golden sun has put


s: Winter to headlong flight beneath the world,


s: And oped the doors of heaven with summer ray,


s: Forthwith they roam the glades and forests o'er,


s: Rifle the painted flowers, or sip the streams,


s: Light-hovering on the surface. Hence it is


s: With some sweet rapture, that we know not of,


s: Their little ones they foster, hence with skill


s: Work out new wax or clinging honey mould.


s: Float heavenward through the hot clear air, until


s: You marvel at yon dusky cloud that spreads


s: And lengthens on the wind, then mark them well;


s: For then 'tis ever the fresh springs they seek


s: And bowery shelter: hither must you bring


s: The savoury sweets I bid, and sprinkle them,


s: Bruised balsam and the wax-flower's lowly weed,


s: And wake and shake the tinkling cymbals heard


s: By the great Mother: on the anointed spots


s: Themselves will settle, and in wonted wise


s: Seek of themselves the cradle's inmost depth.


s: But if to battle they have hied them forth-


s: For oft 'twixt king and king with uproar dire


s: Fierce feud arises, and at once from far


s: You may discern what passion sways the mob,


s: And how their hearts are throbbing for the strife;


s: Hark! the hoarse brazen note that warriors know


s: Chides on the loiterers, and the ear may catch


s: A sound that mocks the war-trump's broken blasts;


s: Then in hot haste they muster, then flash wings,


s: Sharpen their pointed beaks and knit their thews,


s: And round the king, even to his royal tent,


s: Throng rallying, and with shouts defy the foe.


s: So, when a dry Spring and clear space is given,


s: Forth from the gates they burst, they clash on high;


s: A din arises; they are heaped and rolled


s: Into one mighty mass, and headlong fall,


s: Not denselier hail through heaven, nor pelting so


s: Rains from the shaken oak its acorn-shower.


s: Conspicuous by their wings the chiefs themselves


s: Press through the heart of battle, and display


s: Steadfast no inch to yield till these or those


s: The victor's ponderous arm has turned to flight.


s: Such fiery passions and such fierce assaults


s: A little sprinkled dust controls and quells.


s: And now, both leaders from the field recalled,


s: Who hath the worser seeming, do to death,


s: Lest royal waste wax burdensome, but let


s: One with gold-burnished flakes will shine like fire,


s: For twofold are their kinds, the nobler he,


s: Of peerless front and lit with flashing scales;


s: That other, from neglect and squalor foul,


s: Drags slow a cumbrous belly. As with kings,


s: So too with people, diverse is their mould,


s: Some rough and loathly, as when the wayfarer


s: Scapes from a whirl of dust, and scorched with heat


s: Spits forth the dry grit from his parched mouth:


s: The others shine forth and flash with lightning-gleam,


s: Their backs all blazoned with bright drops of gold


s: Symmetric: this the likelier breed; from these,


s: When heaven brings round the season, thou shalt strain


s: Sweet honey, nor yet so sweet as passing clear,


s: And mellowing on the tongue the wine-god's fire.


s: But when the swarms fly aimlessly abroad,


s: Disport themselves in heaven and spurn their cells,


s: Leaving the hive unwarmed, from such vain play


s: Must you refrain their volatile desires,


s: Nor hard the task: tear off the monarchs' wings;


s: While these prove loiterers, none beside will dare


s: Mount heaven, or pluck the standards from the camp.


s: Let gardens with the breath of saffron flowers


s: Allure them, and the lord of Hellespont,


s: Safe in his keeping hold from birds and thieves.


s: And let the man to whom such cares are dear


s: Himself bring thyme and pine-trees from the heights,


s: And strew them in broad belts about their home;


s: No hand but his the blistering task should ply,


s: Plant the young slips, or shed the genial showers.


s: Furling my sails, and, nigh the journey's end,


s: Eager to turn my vessel's prow to shore,


s: Perchance would sing what careful husbandry


s: Makes the trim garden smile; of Paestum too,


s: Whose roses bloom and fade and bloom again;


s: How endives glory in the streams they drink,


s: And green banks in their parsley, and how the gourd


s: Twists through the grass and rounds him to paunch;


s: That loiterer of the flowers, nor supple-stemmed


s: Acanthus, with the praise of ivies pale,


s: And myrtles clinging to the shores they love.


s: For 'neath the shade of tall Oebalia's towers,


s: Where dark Galaesus laves the yellowing fields,


s: From Corycus he came- to whom had fallen


s: And they nor fruitful' neath the plodding steer,


s: Meet for the grazing herd, nor good for vines.


s: Yet he, the while his meagre garden-herbs


s: Among the thorns he planted, and all round


s: White lilies, vervains, and lean poppy set,


s: In pride of spirit matched the wealth of kings,


s: And home returning not till night was late,


s: With unbought plenty heaped his board on high.


s: He was the first to cull the rose in spring,


s: He the ripe fruits in autumn; and ere yet


s: The rocks with frost, and with her icy bit


s: Curb in the running waters, there was he


s: Plucking the rathe faint hyacinth, while he chid


s: Summer's slow footsteps and the lagging West.


s: Therefore he too with earliest brooding bees


s: And their full swarms o'erflowed, and first was he


s: To press the bubbling honey from the comb;


s: Lime-trees were his, and many a branching pine;


s: And all the fruits wherewith in early bloom


s: The orchard-tree had clothed her, in full tale


s: Hung there, by mellowing autumn perfected.


s: He too transplanted tall-grown elms a-row,


s: Time-toughened pear, thorns bursting with the plum


s: And plane now yielding serviceable shade


s: For dry lips to drink under: but these things,


s: Come, then, I will unfold the natural powers


s: Great Jove himself upon the bees bestowed,


s: The boon for which, led by the shrill sweet strains


s: Of the Curetes and their clashing brass,


s: They fed the King of heaven in Dicte's cave.


s: Alone of all things they receive and hold


s: And they alone fixed home and country know,


s: And in the summer, warned of coming cold,


s: Make proof of toil, and for the general store


s: Hoard up their gathered harvesting. For some


s: Watch o'er the victualling of the hive, and these


s: By settled order ply their tasks afield;


s: And some within the confines of their home


s: Plant firm the comb's first layer, Narcissus' tear,


s: And sticky gum oozed from the bark of trees,


s: Then set the clinging wax to hang therefrom.


s: Others the while lead forth the full-grown young,


s: Their country's hope, and others press and pack


s: The thrice repured honey, and stretch their cells


s: To bursting with the clear-strained nectar sweet.


s: Some, too, the wardship of the gates befalls,


s: Who watch in turn for showers and cloudy skies,


s: Or ease returning labourers of their load,


s: Or form a band and from their precincts drive


s: The drones, a lazy herd. How glows the work!


s: How sweet the honey smells of perfumed thyme


s: Like the Cyclopes, when in haste they forge


s: From the slow-yielding ore the thunderbolts,


s: Some from the bull's-hide bellows in and out


s: Let the blasts drive, some dip i' the water-trough


s: The sputtering metal: with the anvil's weight


s: With giant strength uplift their sinewy arms,


s: Or twist the iron with the forceps' grip-


s: Not otherwise, to measure small with great,


s: The love of getting planted in their breasts


s: Goads on the bees, that haunt old Cecrops' heights,


s: Each in his sphere to labour. The old have charge


s: To keep the town, and build the walled combs,


s: And mould the cunning chambers; but the youth,


s: Their tired legs packed with thyme, come labouring home


s: On arbutes and the grey-green willow-leaves,


s: Glue-yielding limes, and hyacinths dusky-eyed.


s: One hour for rest have all, and one for toil:


s: With dawn they hurry from the gates- no room


s: For loiterers there: and once again, when even


s: Now bids them quit their pasturing on the plain,


s: Then homeward make they, then refresh their strength:


s: About the doors and threshold; till at length


s: Safe laid to rest they hush them for the night,


s: And welcome slumber laps their weary limbs.


s: But from the homestead not too far they fare,


s: When showers hang like to fall, nor, east winds nigh,


s: Confide in heaven, but 'neath the city walls


s: Safe-circling fetch them water, or essay


s: Brief out-goings, and oft weigh-up tiny stones,


s: As light craft ballast in the tossing tide,


s: Wherewith they poise them through the cloudy vast.


s: This law of life, too, by the bees obeyed,


s: Will move thy wonder, that nor sex with sex


s: Yoke they in marriage, nor yield their limbs to love,


s: From leaves and honied herbs, the mothers, each,


s: Gather their offspring in their mouths, alone


s: Supply new kings and pigmy commonwealth,


s: And their old court and waxen realm repair.


s: Oft, too, while wandering, against jagged stones


s: Their wings they fray, and 'neath the burden yield


s: Their liberal lives: so deep their love of flowers,


s: So glorious deem they honey's proud acquist.


s: Therefore, though each a life of narrow span,


s: Ne'er stretched to summers more than seven, befalls,


s: Yet deathless doth the race endure, and still


s: Perennial stands the fortune of their line,


s: From grandsire unto grandsire backward told.


s: Of boundless Lydia, no, nor Parthia's hordes,


s: Do such obeisance: lives the king unscathed,


s: One will inspires the million: is he dead,


s: Snapt is the bond of fealty; they themselves


s: Ravage their toil-wrought honey, and rend amain


s: Their own comb's waxen trellis. He is the lord


s: They reverence, and with murmuring throngs surround,


s: In crowds attend, oft shoulder him on high,


s: Or with their bodies shield him in the fight,


s: And seek through showering wounds a glorious death.


s: Led by these tokens, and with such traits to guide,


s: Some say that unto bees a share is given


s: Of the Divine Intelligence, and to drink


s: Pure draughts of ether; for God permeates all-


s: Earth, and wide ocean, and the vault of heaven-


s: From whom flocks, herds, men, beasts of every kind,


s: Draw each at birth the fine essential flame;


s: Yea, and that all things hence to Him return,


s: Brought back by dissolution, nor can death


s: Find place: but, each into his starry rank,


s: Alive they soar, and mount the heights of heaven.


s: If now their narrow home thou wouldst unseal,


s: And broach the treasures of the honey-house,


s: With draught of water first toment thy lips,


s: And spread before thee fumes of trailing smoke.


s: Twice is the teeming produce gathered in,


s: Twofold their time of harvest year by year,


s: Her comely forehead for the earth to see,


s: With foot of scorn spurning the ocean-streams,


s: Once when in gloom she flies the watery Fish,


s: And dips from heaven into the wintry wave.


s: Unbounded then their wrath; if hurt, they breathe


s: Venom into their bite, cleave to the veins


s: And let the sting lie buried, and leave their lives


s: Behind them in the wound. But if you dread


s: Temper the coming time, and their bruised hearts


s: And broken estate to pity move thy soul,


s: Yet who would fear to fumigate with thyme,


s: Into their comb the newt has gnawed unseen,


s: And the light-loathing beetles crammed their bed,


s: And he that sits at others' board to feast,


s: The do-naught drone; or 'gainst the unequal foe


s: Swoops the fierce hornet, or the moth's fell tribe;


s: Athwart the doorway hangs her swaying net.


s: The more impoverished they, the keenlier all


s: To mend the fallen fortunes of their race


s: Will nerve them, fill the cells up, tier on tier,


s: And weave their granaries from the rifled flowers.


s: Now, seeing that life doth even to bee-folk bring


s: Their bodies' strength should languish- which anon


s: Forthwith the sick change hue; grim leanness mars


s: Their visage; then from out the cells they bear


s: Forms reft of light, and lead the mournful pomp;


s: Or foot to foot about the porch they hang,


s: Or within closed doors loiter, listless all


s: From famine, and benumbed with shrivelling cold.


s: Then is a deep note heard, a long-drawn hum,


s: As when the chill South through the forests sighs,


s: As when the troubled ocean hoarsely booms


s: With back-swung billow, as ravening tide of fire


s: Surges, shut fast within the furnace-walls.


s: And, honey-streams through reeden troughs instilled,


s: Challenge and cheer their flagging appetite


s: To taste the well-known food; and it shall boot


s: To mix therewith the savour bruised from gall,


s: And rose-leaves dried, or must to thickness boiled


s: By a fierce fire, or juice of raisin-grapes


s: From Psithian vine, and with its bitter smell


s: Centaury, and the famed Cecropian thyme.


s: There is a meadow-flower by country folk


s: Hight star-wort; 'tis a plant not far to seek;


s: For from one sod an ample growth it rears,


s: Itself all golden, but girt with plenteous leaves,


s: Where glory of purple shines through violet gloom.


s: With chaplets woven hereof full oft are decked


s: Heaven's altars: harsh its taste upon the tongue;


s: Shepherds in vales smooth-shorn of nibbling flocks


s: The roots of this, well seethed in fragrant wine,


s: Set in brimmed baskets at their doors for food.


s: But if one's whole stock fail him at a stroke,


s: Nor hath he whence to breed the race anew,


s: 'Tis time the wondrous secret to disclose


s: The blood of slaughtered bullocks oft has borne


s: Bees from corruption. I will trace me back


s: To its prime source the story's tangled thread,


s: And thence unravel. For where thy happy folk,


s: Dwell by the Nile's lagoon-like overflow,


s: And high o'er furrows they have called their own


s: Skim in their painted wherries; where, hard by,


s: The quivered Persian presses, and that flood


s: Which from the swart-skinned Aethiop bears him down,


s: Swift-parted into sevenfold branching mouths


s: That whole domain its welfare's hope secure


s: Rests on this art alone. And first is chosen


s: A strait recess, cramped closer to this end,


s: Which next with narrow roof of tiles atop


s: 'Twixt prisoning walls they pinch, and add hereto


s: From the four winds four slanting window-slits.


s: Then seek they from the herd a steer, whose horns


s: With two years' growth are curling, and stop fast,


s: Plunge madly as he may, the panting mouth


s: And nostrils twain, and done with blows to death,


s: Batter his flesh to pulp i' the hide yet whole,


s: And shut the doors, and leave him there to lie.


s: But 'neath his ribs they scatter broken boughs,


s: With thyme and fresh-pulled cassias: this is done


s: When first the west winds bid the waters flow,


s: Ere flush the meadows with new tints, and ere


s: The twittering swallow buildeth from the beams.


s: Meanwhile the juice within his softened bones


s: Heats and ferments, and things of wondrous birth,


s: Footless at first, anon with feet and wings,


s: Swarm there and buzz, a marvel to behold;


s: And more and more the fleeting breeze they take,


s: Till, like a shower that pours from summer-clouds,


s: Forth burst they, or like shafts from quivering string


s: When Parthia's flying hosts provoke the fray.


s: Say what was he, what God, that fashioned forth


s: This art for us, O Muses? of man's skill


s: Whence came the new adventure? From thy vale,


s: So runs the tale, by famine and disease,


s: Fast by the haunted river-head, and thus


s: With many a plaint to her that bare him cried:


s: "Mother, Cyrene, mother, who hast thy home


s: Beneath this whirling flood, if he thou sayest,


s: Sprung from the Gods' high line, why barest thou me


s: With fortune's ban for birthright? Where is now


s: Thy love to me-ward banished from thy breast?


s: O! wherefore didst thou bid me hope for heaven?


s: Lo! even the crown of this poor mortal life,


s: Which all my skilful care by field and fold,


s: No art neglected, scarce had fashioned forth,


s: Even this falls from me, yet thou call'st me son.


s: Nay, then, arise! With thine own hands pluck up


s: My fruit-plantations: on the homestead fling


s: Burn the young plants, and wield the stubborn axe


s: Against my vines, if there hath taken the


s: Such loathing of my greatness." But that cry,


s: Even from her chamber in the river-deeps,


s: His mother heard: around her spun the nymphs


s: Milesian wool stained through with hyaline dye,


s: Their glossy locks o'er snowy shoulders shed,


s: A maiden one, one newly learned even then


s: And Beroe, sisters, ocean-children both,


s: Both zoned with gold and girt with dappled fell,


s: Fleet-footed Arethusa. But in their midst


s: Of Vulcan's idle vigilance and the stealth


s: Of Mars' sweet rapine, and from Chaos old


s: Counted the jostling love-joys of the Gods.


s: Charmed by whose lay, the while their woolly tasks


s: With spindles down they drew, yet once again


s: Smote on his mother's ears the mournful plaint


s: Before the rest put forth her auburn head,


s: Peering above the wave-top, and from far


s: Exclaimed, "Cyrene, sister, not for naught


s: Scared by a groan so deep, behold! 'tis he,


s: Even Aristaeus, thy heart's fondest care,


s: Stands woebegone and weeping, and by name


s: To whom, strange terror knocking at her heart,


s: "Bring, bring him to our sight," the mother cried;


s: "His feet may tread the threshold even of Gods."


s: So saying, she bids the flood yawn wide and yield


s: A pathway for his footsteps; but the wave


s: Arched mountain-wise closed round him, and within


s: Its mighty bosom welcomed, and let speed


s: To the deep river-bed. And now, with eyes


s: And watery kingdom and cave-prisoned pools


s: And echoing groves, he went, and, stunned by that


s: Stupendous whirl of waters, separate saw


s: All streams beneath the mighty earth that glide,


s: Phasis and Lycus, and that fountain-head


s: Whence first the deep Enipeus leaps to light,


s: Whence father Tiber, and whence Anio's flood,


s: Than whom none other through the laughing plains


s: Soon as the chamber's hanging roof of stone


s: Had heard his idle weeping, in due course


s: Clear water for his hands the sisters bring,


s: With napkins of shorn pile, while others heap


s: The board with dainties, and set on afresh


s: The brimming goblets; with Panchaian fires


s: Upleap the altars; then the mother spake,


s: "Take beakers of Maconian wine," she said,


s: She worships, and the sister-nymphs who guard


s: The hundred forests and the hundred streams;


s: Thrice Vesta's fire with nectar clear she dashed,


s: Thrice to the roof-top shot the flame and shone:


s: Armed with which omen she essayed to speak:


s: "In Neptune's gulf Carpathian dwells a seer,


s: Caerulean Proteus, he who metes the main


s: With fish-drawn chariot of two-footed steeds;


s: Now visits he his native home once more,


s: We nymphs do reverence, ay, and Nereus old;


s: For all things knows the seer, both those which are


s: And have been, or which time hath yet to bring;


s: So willed it Neptune, whose portentous flocks,


s: And loathly sea-calves 'neath the surge he feeds.


s: Him first, my son, behoves thee seize and bind


s: That he may all the cause of sickness show,


s: And grant a prosperous end. For save by force


s: No rede will he vouchsafe, nor shalt thou bend


s: His soul by praying; whom once made captive, ply


s: With rigorous force and fetters; against these


s: His wiles will break and spend themselves in vain.


s: I, when the sun has lit his noontide fires,


s: When the blades thirst, and cattle love the shade,


s: Myself will guide thee to the old man's haunt,


s: Whither he hies him weary from the waves,


s: That thou mayst safelier steal upon his sleep.


s: But when thou hast gripped him fast with hand and gyve,


s: Then divers forms and bestial semblances


s: Shall mock thy grasp; for sudden he will change


s: To bristly boar, fell tigress, dragon scaled,


s: A crackling sound of fire, and so shake of


s: Dissolve and vanish. But the more he shifts


s: His endless transformations, thou, my son,


s: More straitlier clench the clinging bands, until


s: His body's shape return to that thou sawest,


s: When with closed eyelids first he sank to sleep."


s: She sheds around, and all his frame therewith


s: Steeps throughly; forth from his trim-combed locks


s: Breathed effluence sweet, and a lithe vigour leapt


s: Scooped in the mountain-side, where wave on wave


s: By the wind's stress is driven, and breaks far up


s: Its inmost creeks- safe anchorage from of old


s: For tempest-taken mariners: therewithin,


s: Behind a rock's huge barrier, Proteus hides.


s: Here in close covert out of the sun's eye


s: The youth she places, and herself the while


s: Swathed in a shadowy mist stands far aloof.


s: And now the ravening dog-star that burns up


s: The thirsty Indians blazed in heaven; his course


s: The fiery sun had half devoured: the blades


s: Were parched, and the void streams with droughty jaws


s: Baked to their mud-beds by the scorching ray,


s: When Proteus seeking his accustomed cave


s: Strode from the billows: round him frolicking


s: The watery folk that people the waste sea


s: Sprinkled the bitter brine-dew far and wide.


s: Along the shore in scattered groups to feed


s: The sea-calves stretch them: while the seer himself,


s: Like herdsman on the hills when evening bids


s: The steers from pasture to their stall repair,


s: And the lambs' bleating whets the listening wolves,


s: Sits midmost on the rock and tells his tale.


s: But Aristaeus, the foe within his clutch,


s: Scarce suffering him compose his aged limbs,


s: With a great cry leapt on him, and ere he rose


s: Forestalled him with the fetters; he nathless,


s: Transforms himself to every wondrous thing,


s: Fire and a fearful beast, and flowing stream.


s: But when no trickery found a path for flight,


s: Baffled at length, to his own shape returned,


s: With human lips he spake, "Who bade thee, then,


s: So reckless in youth's hardihood, affront


s: Our portals? or what wouldst thou hence?"- But he,


s: "Proteus, thou knowest, of thine own heart thou knowest;


s: For thee there is no cheating, but cease thou


s: An oracle to ask thee." There he ceased.


s: Whereat the seer, by stubborn force constrained,


s: Shot forth the grey light of his gleaming eyes


s: Upon him, and with fiercely gnashing teeth


s: Unlocks his lips to spell the fates of heaven:


s: "Doubt not 'tis wrath divine that plagues thee thus,


s: Nor light the debt thou payest; 'tis Orpheus' self,


s: So fates prevent not, fans thy penal fires,


s: Yet madly raging for his ravished bride.


s: She in her haste to shun thy hot pursuit


s: Along the stream, saw not the coming death,


s: Where at her feet kept ward upon the bank


s: In the tall grass a monstrous water-snake.


s: But with their cries the Dryad-band her peers


s: Filled up the mountains to their proudest peaks:


s: Wailed for her fate the heights of Rhodope,


s: The land that bowed to Rhesus, Thrace no less


s: Daughter of Acte old. But Orpheus' self,


s: Soothing his love-pain with the hollow shell,


s: Thee his sweet wife on the lone shore alone,


s: Thee when day dawned and when it died he sang.


s: Nay to the jaws of Taenarus too he came,


s: Of Dis the infernal palace, and the grove


s: Grim with a horror of great darkness- came,


s: Entered, and faced the Manes and the King


s: Of terrors, the stone heart no prayer can tame.


s: Wrung by his minstrelsy, the hollow shades


s: Came trooping, ghostly semblances of forms


s: Lost to the light, as birds by myriads hie


s: To greenwood boughs for cover, when twilight-hour


s: Or storms of winter chase them from the hills;


s: Matrons and men, and great heroic frames


s: Done with life's service, boys, unwedded girls,


s: Youths placed on pyre before their fathers' eyes.


s: Round them, with black slime choked and hideous weed,


s: Cocytus winds; there lies the unlovely swamp


s: Of dull dead water, and, to pen them fast,


s: Styx with her ninefold barrier poured between.


s: Nay, even the deep Tartarean Halls of death


s: Stood lost in wonderment, and the Eumenides,


s: Their brows with livid locks of serpents twined;


s: Even Cerberus held his triple jaws agape,


s: And, the wind hushed, Ixion's wheel stood still.


s: And now with homeward footstep he had passed


s: All perils scathless, and, at length restored,


s: Had well-nigh won, behind him following-


s: So Proserpine had ruled it- when his heart


s: A sudden mad desire surprised and seized-


s: Meet fault to be forgiven, might Hell forgive.


s: Heedless, alas! and vanquished of resolve,


s: He stopped, turned, looked upon Eurydice


s: His own once more. But even with the look,


s: Poured out was all his labour, broken the bond


s: Of that fell tyrant, and a crash was heard


s: Three times like thunder in the meres of hell.


s: 'Orpheus! what ruin hath thy frenzy wrought


s: The unpitying fates recall me, and dark sleep


s: Closes my swimming eyes. And now farewell:


s: Girt with enormous night I am borne away,


s: Outstretching toward thee, thine, alas! no more,


s: These helpless hands.' She spake, and suddenly,


s: Passed and was sundered from his sight; nor him


s: Clutching vain shadows, yearning sore to speak,


s: Thenceforth beheld she, nor no second time


s: Hell's boatman brooks he pass the watery bar.


s: What should he do? fly whither, twice bereaved?


s: Move with what tears the Manes, with what voice


s: The Powers of darkness? She indeed even now


s: Death-cold was floating on the Stygian barge!


s: For seven whole months unceasingly, men say,


s: Strymon, he wept, and in the caverns chill


s: Unrolled his story, melting tigers' hearts,


s: And leading with his lay the oaks along.


s: Mourns her lost young, which some relentless swain,


s: Spying, from the nest has torn unfledged, but she


s: Wails the long night, and perched upon a spray


s: With sad insistence pipes her dolorous strain,


s: Till all the region with her wrongs o'erflows.


s: No love, no new desire, constrained his soul:


s: Far steppes to frost Rhipaean forever wed,


s: Lamenting, and the gifts of Dis ungiven.


s: Scorned by which tribute the Ciconian dames,


s: And midnight revellings, tore him limb from limb,


s: And strewed his fragments over the wide fields.


s: Then too, even then, what time the Hebrus stream,


s: Oeagrian Hebrus, down mid-current rolled,


s: Rent from the marble neck, his drifting head,


s: The death-chilled tongue found yet a voice to cry


s: With parting breath he called her, and the banks


s: From the broad stream caught up 'Eurydice!'"


s: So Proteus ending plunged into the deep,


s: And, where he plunged, beneath the eddying whirl


s: Churned into foam the water, and was gone;


s: Bespake the trembling listener: "Nay, my son,


s: From that sad bosom thou mayst banish care:


s: Hence came that plague of sickness, hence the nymphs,


s: With whom in the tall woods the dance she wove,


s: Wrought on thy bees, alas! this deadly bane.


s: Bend thou before the Dell-nymphs, gracious powers:


s: Bring gifts, and sue for pardon: they will grant


s: Peace to thine asking, and an end of wrath.


s: But how to approach them will I first unfold-


s: Four chosen bulls of peerless form and bulk,


s: That browse to-day the green Lycaean heights,


s: Pick from thy herds, as many kine to match,


s: Whose necks the yoke pressed never: then for these


s: Build up four altars by the lofty fanes,


s: And from their throats let gush the victims' blood,


s: And in the greenwood leave their bodies lone.


s: Then, when the ninth dawn hath displayed its beams,


s: To Orpheus shalt thou send his funeral dues,


s: Coal-black, then seek the grove again, and soon


s: The self-same hour he hies him forth to do


s: His mother's bidding: to the shrine he came,


s: The appointed altars reared, and thither led


s: With kine to match, that never yoke had known;


s: Then, when the ninth dawn had led in the day,


s: To Orpheus sent his funeral dues, and sought


s: The grove once more. But sudden, strange to tell


s: A portent they espy: through the oxen's flesh,


s: Waxed soft in dissolution, hark! there hum


s: Bees from the belly; the rent ribs overboil


s: In endless clouds they spread them, till at last


s: On yon tree-top together fused they cling,


s: And drop their cluster from the bending boughs.


s: So sang I of the tilth of furrowed fields,


s: Of flocks and trees, while Caesar's majesty


s: Launched forth the levin-bolts of war by deep


s: Euphrates, and bare rule o'er willing folk


s: Though vanquished, and essayed the heights of heaven.


s: The nursling, wooed the flowery walks of peace


s: Inglorious, who erst trilled for shepherd-wights


s: The wanton ditty, and sang in saucy youth


s: Thee, Tityrus, 'neath the spreading beech tree's shade.


s: Rendered into English Verse by Edward Fitzgerald


s: Testament--which he wrote and left as a Memorial for future


s: "'One of the greatest of the wise men of Khorassan was the Imam


s: gradual rise, he plunged into the maze of intrigue of an oriental


s: eminence under the guidance of his strong and evil will.  In A.D.