Eclogues

Virgil

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

  1. the traitor left me, which, O earth, to thee
  2. here on this very threshold I commit—
  3. pledges that bind him to redeem the debt.
  4. These herbs of bane to me did Moeris give,
  5. in Pontus culled, where baneful herbs abound.
  6. With these full oft have I seen Moeris change
  7. to a wolf's form, and hide him in the woods,
  8. oft summon spirits from the tomb's recess,
  9. and to new fields transport the standing corn.
  10. Take ashes, Amaryllis, fetch them forth,
  11. and o'er your head into the running brook
  12. fling them, nor look behind: with these will
  13. upon the heart of Daphnis make essay.
  14. Nothing for gods, nothing for songs cares he.
  15. Look, look I the very embers of themselves
  16. have caught the altar with a flickering flame,
  17. while I delay to fetch them: may the sign