Eclogues

Virgil

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

  1. daphnis beneath a rustling ilex-tree
  2. had sat him down; Thyrsis and Corydon
  3. had gathered in the flock, Thyrsis the sheep,
  4. and Corydon the she-goats swollen with milk—
  5. both in the flower of age, Arcadians both,
  6. ready to sing, and in like strain reply.
  7. Hither had strayed, while from the frost I fend
  8. my tender myrtles, the he-goat himself,
  9. lord of the flock; when Daphnis I espy!
  10. Soon as he saw me, “Hither haste,” he cried,
  11. “O Meliboeus! goat and kids are safe;
  12. and, if you have an idle hour to spare,
  13. rest here beneath the shade. Hither the steers
  14. will through the meadows, of their own free will,
  15. untended come to drink. Here Mincius hath
  16. with tender rushes rimmed his verdant banks,
  17. and from yon sacred oak with busy hum
  18. the bees are swarming.” What was I to do?
  19. No Phyllis or Alcippe left at home
  20. had I, to shelter my new-weaned lambs,