Eclogues

Virgil

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

  1. “Fair Amaryllis” bid the woods resound.
TITYRUS
  1. O Meliboeus, 'twas a god vouchsafed
  2. this ease to us, for him a god will I
  3. deem ever, and from my folds a tender lamb
  4. oft with its life-blood shall his altar stain.
  5. His gift it is that, as your eyes may see,
  6. my kine may roam at large, and I myself
  7. play on my shepherd's pipe what songs I will.
MELIBOEUS
  1. I grudge you not the boon, but marvel more,
  2. such wide confusion fills the country-side.
  3. See, sick at heart I drive my she-goats on,
  4. and this one, O my Tityrus, scarce can lead:
  5. for 'mid the hazel-thicket here but now
  6. she dropped her new-yeaned twins on the bare flint,
  7. hope of the flock—an ill, I mind me well,
  8. which many a time, but for my blinded sense,
  9. the thunder-stricken oak foretold, oft too