Georgics

Virgil

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

  1. If wool delight thee, first, be far removed
  2. All prickly boskage, burrs and caltrops; shun
  3. Luxuriant pastures; at the outset choose
  4. White flocks with downy fleeces. For the ram,
  5. How white soe'er himself, be but the tongue
  6. 'Neath his moist palate black, reject him, lest
  7. He sully with dark spots his offspring's fleece,
  8. And seek some other o'er the teeming plain.
  9. Even with such snowy bribe of wool, if ear
  10. May trust the tale, Pan, God of Arcady,
  11. Snared and beguiled thee, Luna, calling thee
  12. To the deep woods; nor thou didst spurn his call.