Eclogues

Virgil

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

  1. Cease now, my flute, now cease Maenalian lays.’”
ALPHESIBOEUS
  1. “Bring water, and with soft wool-fillet bind
  2. these altars round about, and burn thereon
  3. rich vervain and male frankincense, that I
  4. may strive with magic spells to turn astray
  5. my lover's saner senses, whereunto
  6. there lacketh nothing save the power of song.
  7. Songs can the very moon draw down from heaven
  8. circe with singing changed from human form
  9. the comrades of Ulysses, and by song
  10. is the cold meadow-snake, asunder burst.
  11. These triple threads of threefold colour first
  12. I twine about thee, and three times withal
  13. around these altars do thine image bear:
  14. uneven numbers are the god's delight.