Georgics

Virgil

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

  1. For the rest, whate'er
  2. The sets thou plantest in thy fields, thereon
  3. Strew refuse rich, and with abundant earth
  4. Take heed to hide them, and dig in withal
  5. Rough shells or porous stone, for therebetween
  6. Will water trickle and fine vapour creep,
  7. And so the plants their drooping spirits raise.
  8. Aye, and there have been, who with weight of stone
  9. Or heavy potsherd press them from above;
  10. This serves for shield in pelting showers, and this
  11. When the hot dog-star chaps the fields with drought.
  1. The slips once planted, yet remains to cleave
  2. The earth about their roots persistently,
  3. And toss the cumbrous hoes, or task the soil
  4. With burrowing plough-share, and ply up and down
  5. Your labouring bullocks through the vineyard's midst,
  6. Then too smooth reeds and shafts of whittled wand,
  7. And ashen poles and sturdy forks to shape,
  8. Whereby supported they may learn to mount,
  9. Laugh at the gales, and through the elm-tops win
  10. From story up to story.