Eclogues

Virgil

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

wherewith in singing he was wont to draw

time-rooted ash-trees from the mountain heights.

With these the birth of the Grynean grove

be voiced by thee, that of no grove beside

apollo more may boast him.” Wherefore speak

of Scylla, child of Nisus, who, 'tis said,

her fair white loins with barking monsters girt

vexed the Dulichian ships, and, in the deep

swift-eddying whirlpool, with her sea-dogs tore

the trembling mariners? or how he told

of the changed limbs of Tereus—what a feast,

what gifts, to him by Philomel were given;

how swift she sought the desert, with what wings

hovered in anguish o'er her ancient home?

All that, of old, Eurotas, happy stream,

heard, as Apollo mused upon the lyre,

and bade his laurels learn, Silenus sang;

till from Olympus, loth at his approach,

vesper, advancing, bade the shepherds tell

their tale of sheep, and pen them in the fold.