Eclogues

Virgil

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

  1. so much delights me, nor wave-smitten beach,
  2. nor streams that race adown their bouldered beds.
MENALCAS
  1. First this frail hemlock-stalk to you I give,
  2. which taught me “Corydon with love was fired
  3. for fair Alexis,” ay, and this beside,
  4. “Who owns the flock?—Meliboeus?”
MOPSUS
  1. But take you
  2. this shepherd's crook, which, howso hard he begged,
  3. antigenes, then worthy to be loved,
  4. prevailed not to obtain—with brass, you see,
  5. and equal knots, Menalcas, fashioned fair!
  1. first my Thalia stooped in sportive mood
  2. to Syracusan strains, nor blushed within
  3. the woods to house her. When I sought to tell
  4. of battles and of kings, the Cynthian god
  5. plucked at mine ear and warned me: “Tityrus,
  6. beseems a shepherd-wight to feed fat sheep,
  7. but sing a slender song.” Now, Varus, I—
  8. for lack there will not who would laud thy deeds,
  9. and treat of dolorous wars—will rather tune