Eclogues

Virgil

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

  • that day when I thy deeds may celebrate,
  • ever that day when through the whole wide world
  • I may renown thy verse—that verse alone
  • of Sophoclean buskin worthy found?
  • With thee began, to thee shall end, the strain.
  • Take thou these songs that owe their birth to thee,
  • and deign around thy temples to let creep
  • this ivy-chaplet 'twixt the conquering bays.
  • Scarce had night's chilly shade forsook the sky
  • what time to nibbling sheep the dewy grass
  • tastes sweetest, when, on his smooth shepherd-staff
  • of olive leaning, Damon thus began.
    • DAMON
    1. “Rise, Lucifer, and, heralding the light,
    2. bring in the genial day, while I make moan
    3. fooled by vain passion for a faithless bride,
    4. for Nysa, and with this my dying breath
    5. call on the gods, though little it bestead—
    6. the gods who heard her vows and heeded not.
    7. Ever hath Maenalus his murmuring groves