Georgics

Virgil

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

  1. Not that all soils can all things bear alike.
  2. Willows by water-courses have their birth,
  3. Alders in miry fens; on rocky heights
  4. The barren mountain-ashes; on the shore
  5. Myrtles throng gayest; Bacchus, lastly, loves
  6. The bare hillside, and yews the north wind's chill.
  7. Mark too the earth by outland tillers tamed,
  8. And Eastern homes of Arabs, and tattooed
  9. Geloni; to all trees their native lands
  10. Allotted are; no clime but India bears
  11. Black ebony; the branch of frankincense
  12. Is Saba's sons' alone; why tell to thee
  13. Of balsams oozing from the perfumed wood,
  14. Or berries of acanthus ever green?
  15. Of Aethiop forests hoar with downy wool,
  16. Or how the Seres comb from off the leaves
  17. Their silky fleece? Of groves which India bears,
  18. Ocean's near neighbour, earth's remotest nook,
  19. Where not an arrow-shot can cleave the air
  20. Above their tree-tops? yet no laggards they,
  21. When girded with the quiver! Media yields
  22. The bitter juices and slow-lingering taste
  23. Of the blest citron-fruit, than which no aid
  24. Comes timelier, when fierce step-dames drug the cup
  25. With simples mixed and spells of baneful power,
  26. To drive the deadly poison from the limbs.
  27. Large the tree's self in semblance like a bay,
  28. And, showered it not a different scent abroad,
  29. A bay it had been; for no wind of heaven
  30. Its foliage falls; the flower, none faster, clings;
  31. With it the Medes for sweetness lave the lips,
  32. And ease the panting breathlessness of age.