Eclogues

Virgil

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

  1. is crown of glory, as to vines the grape,
  2. bulls to the herd, to fruitful fields the corn,
  3. so the one glory of thine own art thou.
  4. When the Fates took thee hence, then Pales' self,
  5. and even Apollo, left the country lone.
  6. Where the plump barley-grain so oft we sowed,
  7. there but wild oats and barren darnel spring;
  8. for tender violet and narcissus bright
  9. thistle and prickly thorn uprear their heads.
  10. Now, O ye shepherds, strew the ground with leaves,
  11. and o'er the fountains draw a shady veil—
  12. so Daphnis to his memory bids be done—
  13. and rear a tomb, and write thereon this verse:
  14. ‘I, Daphnis in the woods, from hence in fame
  15. am to the stars exalted, guardian once
  16. of a fair flock, myself more fair than they.’”
MENALCAS
  1. So is thy song to me, poet divine,
  2. as slumber on the grass to weary limbs,
  3. or to slake thirst from some sweet-bubbling rill
  4. in summer's heat. Nor on the reeds alone,