Eclogues

Virgil

Vergil. The Poems of Vergil. Rhoades, James, translator. London: Oxford University Press, 1921.

  • some traces, bidding tempt the deep with ships,
  • gird towns with walls, with furrows cleave the earth.
  • Therewith a second Tiphys shall there be,
  • her hero-freight a second Argo bear;
  • new wars too shall arise, and once again
  • some great Achilles to some Troy be sent.
  • Then, when the mellowing years have made thee man,
  • no more shall mariner sail, nor pine-tree bark
  • ply traffic on the sea, but every land
  • shall all things bear alike: the glebe no more
  • shall feel the harrow's grip, nor vine the hook;
  • the sturdy ploughman shall loose yoke from steer,
  • nor wool with varying colours learn to lie;
  • but in the meadows shall the ram himself,
  • now with soft flush of purple, now with tint
  • of yellow saffron, teach his fleece to shine.
  • While clothed in natural scarlet graze the lambs.
  • “Such still, such ages weave ye, as ye run,”
  • sang to their spindles the consenting Fates
  • by Destiny's unalterable decree.