Eclogues

Virgil

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

  1. on green leaves pillowed: apples ripe have I,
  2. soft chestnuts, and of curdled milk enow.
  3. And, see, the farm-roof chimneys smoke afar,
  4. and from the hills the shadows lengthening fall!
  1. the shepherd Corydon with love was fired
  2. for fair Alexis, his own master's joy:
  3. no room for hope had he, yet, none the less,
  4. the thick-leaved shadowy-soaring beech-tree grove
  5. still would he haunt, and there alone, as thus,
  6. to woods and hills pour forth his artless strains.
  7. “Cruel Alexis, heed you naught my songs?
  8. Have you no pity? you'll drive me to my death.
  9. Now even the cattle court the cooling shade
  10. and the green lizard hides him in the thorn:
  11. now for tired mowers, with the fierce heat spent,
  12. pounds Thestilis her mess of savoury herbs,
  13. wild thyme and garlic. I, with none beside,
  14. save hoarse cicalas shrilling through the brake,
  15. still track your footprints 'neath the broiling sun.
  16. Better have borne the petulant proud disdain