Georgics

Virgil

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

  1. What more? When now the golden sun has put
  2. Winter to headlong flight beneath the world,
  3. And oped the doors of heaven with summer ray,
  4. Forthwith they roam the glades and forests o'er,
  5. Rifle the painted flowers, or sip the streams,
  6. Light-hovering on the surface. Hence it is
  7. With some sweet rapture, that we know not of,
  8. Their little ones they foster, hence with skill
  9. Work out new wax or clinging honey mould.
  10. So when the cage-escaped hosts you see
  11. Float heavenward through the hot clear air, until
  12. You marvel at yon dusky cloud that spreads
  13. And lengthens on the wind, then mark them well;
  14. For then 'tis ever the fresh springs they seek
  15. And bowery shelter: hither must you bring
  16. The savoury sweets I bid, and sprinkle them,
  17. Bruised balsam and the wax-flower's lowly weed,
  18. And wake and shake the tinkling cymbals heard
  19. By the great Mother: on the anointed spots
  20. Themselves will settle, and in wonted wise
  21. Seek of themselves the cradle's inmost depth.