Classic Poem

THE SECOND BOOK OF THE GEORGICS

Thus far of tillage, and of heav'nly signs:
Now sing, my Muse, the growth of gen'rous vines,
The shady groves, the woodland progeny,
And the slow product of Minerva's tree.
Great Father Bacchus! to my song repair;
For clust'ring grapes are thy peculiar care:
For thee, large bunches load the bending vine,
And the last blessings of the year are thine.
To thee his joys the jolly Autumn owes,
When the fermenting juice the vat o'erflows.
Come, strip with me, my god! come, drench all o'er
Thy limbs in must of wine, and drink at ev'ry pore.
Some trees their birth to bounteous Nature owe;
For some without the pains of planting grow.
With osiers thus the banks of brooks abound,
Sprung from the wat'ry genius of the ground.
From the same principles gray willows come,
Herculean poplar, and the tender broom.
But some from seeds inclos'd in earth arise;
For thus the mastful chestnut mates the skies.
Hence rise the branching beech and vocal oak,
Where Jove of old oraculously spoke.
Some from the root a rising wood disclose:
Thus elms, and thus the salvage cherry grows;
Thus the green bay, that binds the poet's brows,
Shoots, and is shelter'd by the mother's boughs.
These ways of planting Nature did ordain
For trees and shrubs, and all the sylvan reign.
Others there are, by late experience found:
Some cut the shoots, and plant in furrow'd ground;
Some cover rooted stalks in deeper mold;
Some, cloven stakes; and (wondrous to behold!)
Their sharpen'd ends in earth their footing place,
And the dry poles produce a living race.
Some bow their vines, which buried in the plain,
Their tops in distant arches rise again.
Others no root require; the lab'rer cuts
Young slips, and in the soil securely puts.
Ev'n stumps of olives, bar'd of leaves, and dead,
Revive, and oft redeem their wither'd head.
'Tis usual now an inmate graff to see
With insolence invade a foreign tree:
Thus pears and quinces from the crab tree come,
And thus the ruddy cornel bears the plum.
Then let the learned gard'ner mark with care
The kinds of stocks, and what those kinds will bear;
Explore the nature of each sev'ral tree,
And, known, improve with artful industry;
And let no spot of idle earth be found,
But cultivate the genius of the ground;
For open Ismarus will Bacchus please;
Taburnus loves the shade of olive trees.
The virtues of the sev'ral soils I sing —
Maecenas, now thy needful succor bring!
O thou! the better part of my renown,
Inspire thy poet, and thy poem crown;
Embark with me, while I new tracts explore,
With flying sails, and breezes from the shore:
Not that my song, in such a scanty space,
So large a subject fully can embrace —
Not tho' I were supplied with iron lungs,
A hundred mouths, fill'd with as many tongues —
But steer my vessel with a steady hand,
And coast along the shore in sight of land.
Nor will I tire thy patience with a train
Of preface, or what ancient poets feign.
The trees which of themselves advance in air
Are barren kinds, but strongly built and fair;
Because the vigor of the native earth
Maintains the plant, and makes a manly birth.
Yet these, receiving graffs of other kind,
Or thence transplanted, change their salvage mind,
Their wildness lose, and, quitting nature's part,
Obey the rules and discipline of art.
The same do trees that, sprung from barren roots,
In open fields transplanted bear their fruits;
For, where they grow, the native energy
Turns all into the substance of the tree.
Starves and destroys the fruit, is only made
For brawny bulk, and for a barren shade.
The plant that shoots from seed, a sullen tree.
At leisure grows, for late posterity;
The gen'rous flavor lost, the fruits decay,
And salvage grapes are made the birds' ignoble prey.
Much labor is requir'd in trees, to tame
Their wild disorder, and in ranks reclaim.
Well must the ground be digg'd, and better dress'd,
New soil to make, and meliorate the rest.
Old stakes of olive trees in plants revive;
By the same methods Paphian myrtles live;
But nobler vines by propagation thrive.
From roots hard bazels; and from cions rise
Tall ash, and taller oak that mates the skies;
Palm, poplar, fir, descending from the steep
Of hills, to try the dangers of the deep.
The thin-leav'd arbute hazel graffs receives;
And planes huge apples bear, that bore but leaves.
Thus mastful beech the bristly chestnut bears,
And the wild ash is white with blooming pears,
And greedy swine from grafted elms are fed
With falling acorns, that on oaks are bred.
But various are the ways to change the state
Of plants, to bud, to graff, t' inoculate.
For, where the tender rinds of trees disclose
Their shooting gems, a swelling knot there grows;
Just in that space a narrow slit we make,
Then other buds from bearing trees we take;
Inserted thus, the wounded rind we close,
In whose moist womb th' admitted infant grows.
But, when the smoother bole from knots is free,
We make a deep incision in the tree,
And in the solid wood the slip inclose:
The batt'ning bastard shoots again and grows;
And in short space the laden boughs arise,
With happy fruit advancing to the skies.
The mother plant admires the leaves unknown
Of alien trees, and apples not her own.
Of vegetable woods are various kinds,
And the same species are of sev'ral minds.
Lotes, willows, elms, have diff'rent forms allow'd;
So fun'ral cypress, rising like a shroud:
Fat olive trees of sundry sorts appear,
Of sundry shapes their unctuous berries bear.
Radii long olives, Orchits round produce,
And bitter Pausia, pounded for the juice.
Alcmoüs' orchard various apples bears;
Unlike are bergamotes and pounder pears.
Nor our Italian vines produce the shape,
Or taste, or flavor, of the Lesbian grape.
The Thasian vines in richer soils abound;
The Mareotic grow in barren ground.
The Psythian grape we dry; Lagaean juice
Will stamm'ring tongues and stagg'ring feet produce.
Rathe ripe are some, and some of late kind;
Of golden some, and some of purple rind.
How shall I praise the Raethean grape divine,
Which yet contends not with Falernian wine?
Th' Aminean many a consulship survives,
And longer than the Lydian vintage lives,
Or high Phanaeus, king of Chian growth;
But for large quantities and lasting, both,
The less Argitis bears the prize away.
The Rhodian, sacred to the solemn day,
In second services is pour'd to Jove,
And best accepted by the gods above.
Nor must Bumastus his old honors lose,
In length and largeness like the dugs of cows.
I pass the rest, whose ev'ry race, and name,
And kinds, are less material to my theme;
Which who would learn, as soon may tell the sands,
Driv'n by the western wind on Libyan lands;
Or number, when the blust'ring Eurus roars,
The billows beating on Ionian shores.
Nor ev'ry plant on ev'ry soil will grow:
The sallow loves the wat'ry ground, and low;
The marshes, alders; nature seems t' ordain
The rocky cliff for the wild ash's reign;
The baleful yew to northern blasts assigns,
To shores the myrtles, and to mounts the vines.
Regard th' extremest cultivated coast,
From hot Arabia to the Scythian frost:
All sort of trees their sev'ral countries know;
Black ebon only will in India grow,
And od'rous frankincense on the Sabaean bough.
Balm slowly trickles thro' the bleeding veins
Of happy shrubs in Idumaean plains.
The green Egyptian thorn, for med'cine good,
With Ethiops' hoary trees and woolly wood,
Let others tell; and how the Seres spin
Their fleecy forests in a slender twine;
With mighty trunks of trees on Indian shores,
Whose height above the feather'd arrow soars,
Shot from the toughest bow, and by the brawn
Of expert archers with vast vigor drawn.
Sharp-tasted citrons Median climes produce,
(Bitter the rind, but gen'rous is the juice,)
A cordial fruit, a present antidote
Against the direful stepdam's deadly draught,
Who, mixing wicked weeds with words impure,
The fate of envied orphans would procure.
Large is the plant, and like a laurel grows,
And, did it not a diff'rent scent disclose,
A laurel were: the fragrant flow'rs contemn
The stormy winds, tenacious of their stem.
With this the Medes to lab'ring age bequeath
New lungs, and cure the sourness of the breath.
But neither Median woods (a plenteous land),
Fair Ganges, Hermus rolling golden sand,
Nor Bactria, nor the richer Indian fields,
Nor all the gummy stores Arabia yields,
Nor any foreign earth of greater name,
Can with sweet Italy contend in fame.
No bulls whose nostrils breathe a living flame
Have turn'd our turf; no teeth of serpents here
Were sown, an armed host and iron crop to bear.
But fruitful vines, and the fat olive's freight,
And harvests heavy with their fruitful weight,
Adorn our fields; and on the cheerful green
The grazing flocks and lowing herds are seen.
The warrior horse, here bred, is taught to train;
There flows Clitumnus thro' the flow'ry plain,
Whose waves, for triumphs after prosp'rous war,
The victim ox and snowy sheep prepare.
Perpetual spring our happy climate sees:
Twice breed the cattle, and twice bear the trees;
And summer suns recede by slow degrees.
Our land is from the rage of tigers freed,
Nor nourishes the lion's angry seed;
Nor pois'nous aconite is here produc'd,
Or grows unknown, or is, when known, refus'd;
Nor in so vast a length our serpents glide,
Or rais'd on such a spiry volume ride.
Next add our cities of illustrious name,
Their costly labor, and stupendous frame;
Our forts on steepy hills, that far below
See wanton streams in winding valleys flow;
Our twofold seas, that, washing either side,
A rich recruit of foreign stores provide;
Our spacious lakes; thee, Larius, first; and next
Benacus, with tempest'ous billows vex'd.
Or shall I praise thy ports, or mention make
Of the vast mound that binds the Lucrine lake?
Or the disdainful sea, that, shut from thence,
Roars round the structure, and invades the fence,
There, where secure the Julian waters glide,
Or where Avernus' jaws admit the Tyrrhene tide?
Our quarries, deep in earth, were fam'd of old
For veins of silver, and for ore of gold.
Th' inhabitants themselves their country grace:
Hence rose the Marsian and Sabellian race,
Strong-limb'd and stout, and to the wars inclin'd,
And hard Ligurians, a laborious kind,
And Volscians arm'd with iron-headed darts.
Besides, an offspring of undaunted hearts,
The Decii, Marii, great Camillus, came
From hence, and greater Scipio's double name;
And mighty Caesar, whose victorious arms
To farthest Asia carry fierce alarms,
Avert unwarlike Indians from his Rome,
Triumph abroad, secure our peace at home.
Hail, sweet Saturnian soil! of fruitful grain
Great parent, greater of illustrious men!
For thee my tuneful accents will I raise,
And treat of arts disclos'd in ancient days;
Once more unlock for thee the sacred spring,
And old Ascraean verse in Roman cities sing.
The nature of their sev'ral soils now see,
Their strength, their color, their fertility:
And first for heath, and barren hilly ground,
Where meager clay and flinty stones abound;
Where the poor soil all succor seems to want —
Yet this suffices the Palladian plant.
Undoubted signs of such a soil are found;
For here wild olive shoots o'erspread the ground,
And heaps of berries strew the fields around.
But where the soil, with fatt'ning moisture fill'd,
Is cloth'd with grass, and fruitful to be till'd,
Such as in cheerful vales we view from high,
Which dripping rocks with rolling streams supply,
And feed with ooze; where rising hillocks run
In length, and open to the southern sun;
Where fern succeeds, ungrateful to the plow —
That gentle ground to gen'rous grapes allow.
Strong stocks of vines it will in time produce,
And overflow the vats with friendly juice,
Such as our priests in golden goblets pour
To gods, the givers of the cheerful hour,
Then when the bloated Tuscan blows his horn,
And reeking entrails are in chargers borne.
If herds or fleecy flocks be more thy care,
Or goats that graze the field, and burn it bare,
Then seek Tarentuin's lawns, and farthest coast,
Or such a field as hapless Mantua lost,
Where silver swans sail down the wat'ry road,
And graze the floating herbage of the flood.
There crystal streams perpetual tenor keep,
Nor food nor springs are wanting to thy sheep;
For, what the day devours, the nightly dew
Shall to the morn in pearly drops renew.
Fat crumbling earth is fitter for the plow,
Putrid and loose above, and black below;
For plowing is an imitative toil,
Resembling nature in an easy soil.
No land for seed like this; no fields afford
So large an income to the village lord:
No toiling teams from harvest labor come
So late at night, so heavy-laden home.
The like of forest land is understood,
From whence the surly plowman grubs the wood,
Which had for length of ages idle stood:
Then birds forsake the ruins of their seat,
And, flying from their nests, their callow young forget.
The coarse lean gravel, on the mountain sides,
Scarce dewy bev'rage for the bees provides;
Nor chalk nor crumbling stones, the food of snakes,
That work in hollow earth their winding tracks.
The soil exhaling clouds of subtile dews,
Imbibing moisture which with ease she spews,
Which rusts not iron, and whose mold is clean,
Well cloth'd with cheerful grass, and ever green,
Is good for olives, and aspiring vines,
Embracing husband elms in am'rous twines;
Is fit for feeding cattle, fit to sow,
And equal to the pasture and the plow.
Such is the soil of fat Campanian fields;
Such large increase the land that joins Vesuvius yields;
And such a country could Acerra boast,
Till Clanius overflow'd th' unhappy coast.
I teach thee next the diff'ring soils to know,
The light for vines, the heavier for the plow.
Choose first a place for such a purpose fit:
There dig the solid earth, and sink a pit;
Next fill the hole with its own earth again.
And trample with thy feet, and tread it in:
Then, if it rise not to the former height
Of superfice, conclude that soil is light,
A proper ground for pasturage and vines.
But if the sullen earth, so press'd, repines
Within its native mansion to retire.
And stays without, a heap of heavy mire,
'T is good for arable, a glebe that asks
Tough teams of oxen, and laborious tasks.
Salt earth and bitter are not fit to sow,
Nor will be tam'd or mended with the plow.
Sweet grapes degen'rate there; and fruits, declin'd
From their first flav'rous taste, renounce their kind.
This truth by sure experiment is tried;
For first an osier colander provide
Of twigs thick wrought (such toiling peasants twine,
When thro' strait passages they strain their wine):
In this close vessel place that earth accurst,
But fill'd brimful with wholesome water first;
Then run it thro': the drops will rope around,
And by the bitter taste disclose the ground.
The fatter earth by handling we may find,
With ease distinguish'd from the meager kind:
Poor soil will crumble into dust; the rich
Will to the fingers cleave like clammy pitch:
Moist earth produces corn and grass, but both
Too rank and too luxuriant in their growth.
Let not my land so large a promise boast,
Lest the lank ears in length of stem be lost.
The heavier earth is by her weight betray'd;
The lighter in the poising hand is weigh'd.
'T is easy to distinguish by the sight
The color of the soil, and black from white;
But the cold ground is difficult to know;
Yet this the plants that prosper there will show:
Black ivy, pitch trees, and the baleful yew.
These rules consider'd well, with early care
The vineyard destin'd for thy vines prepare;
But, long before the planting, dig the ground
With furrows deep that cast a rising mound:
The clods, expos'd to winter winds, will bake;
For putrid earth will best in vineyards take,
And hoary frosts, after the painful toil
Of delving hinds, will rot the mellow soil.
Some peasants, not t' omit the nicest care,
Of the same soil their nursery prepare
With that of their plantation; lest the tree,
Translated, should not with the soil agree.
Beside, to plant it as it was, they mark
The heav'n's four quarters on the tender bark,
And to the north or south restore the side
Which at their birth did heat or cold abide.
So strong is custom; such effects can use
In tender souls of pliant plants produce.
Choose next a province for thy vineyard's reign,
On hills above, or in the lowly plain.
If fertile fields or valleys be thy choice,
Plant thick; for bounteous Bacchus will rejoice
In close plantations there; but if the vine
On rising ground be plac'd, or hills supine,
Extend thy loose battalions largely wide,
Opening thy ranks and files on either side,
But marshal'd all in order as they stand:
And let no soldier straggle from his band.
As legions in the field their front display,
To try the fortune of some doubtful day,
And move to meet their foes with sober pace,
Strict to their figure, tho' in wider space,
Before the battle joins, while from afar
The field yet glitters with the pomp of war,
And equal Mars, like an impartial lord,
Leaves all to fortune, and the dint of sword;
So let thy vines in intervals be set,
But not their rural discipline forget:
Indulge their width, and add a roomy space,
That their extremest lines may scarce embrace:
Nor this alone t' indulge a vain delight,
And make a pleasing prospect for the sight;
But, for the ground itself, this only way
Can equal vigor to the plants convey,
Which, crowded, want the room their branches to display.
How deep they must be planted, wouldst thou know?
In shallow furrows vines securely grow.
Not so the rest of plants; for Jove's own tree,
That holds the woods in awful sov'reignty,
Requires a depth of lodging in the ground,
And, next the lower skies, a bed profound:
High as his topmost boughs to heav'n ascend,
So low his roots to hell's dominion tend.
Therefore, nor winds, nor winter's rage o'er-throws
His bulky body, but unmov'd he grows;
For length of ages lasts his happy reign,
And lives of mortal man contend in vain:
Full in the midst of his own strength he stands,
Stretching his brawny arms, and leafy hands;
His shade protects the plains, his head the hills commands.
The hurtful hazel in thy vineyard shun;
Nor plant it to receive the setting sun;
Nor break the topmost branches from the tree;
Nor prune, with blunted knife, the progeny.
Root up wild olives from thy labor'd lands;
For sparkling fire, from hinds' unwary hands,
Is often scatter'd o'er their unctuous rinds,
And after spread abroad by raging winds:
For first the smould'ring flame the trunk receives;
Ascending thence, it crackles in the leaves;
At length victorious to the top aspires,
Involving all the wood in smoky fires;
But most, when, driv'n by winds, the flaming storm
Of the long files destroys the beauteous form.
In ashes then th' unhappy vineyard lies;
Nor will the blasted plants from ruin rise;
Nor will the wither'd stock be green again;
But the wild olive shoots, and shades th' ungrateful plain.
Be not seduc'd with wisdom's empty shows,
To stir the peaceful ground when Boreas blows.
When winter frosts constrain the field with cold,
The fainty root can take no steady hold;
But when the golden spring reveals the year,
And the white bird returns, whom serpents fear,
That season deem the best to plant thy vines:
Next that, is when autumnal warmth declines,
Ere heat is quite decay'd, or cold begun,
Or Capricorn admits the winter sun.
The spring adorns the woods, renews the leaves;
The womb of Earth the genial seed receives:
For then almighty Jove descends, and pours
Into his buxom bride his fruitful show'rs;
And, mixing his large limbs with hers, he feeds
Her births with kindly juice, and fosters teeming seeds.
Then joyous birds frequent the lonely grove,
And beasts, by nature stung, renew their love.
Then fields the blades of buried corn disclose;
And, while the balmy western spirit blows,
Earth to the breath her bosom dares expose.
With kindly moisture then the plants abound;
The grass securely springs above the ground;
The tender twig shoots upward to the skies,
And on the faith of the new sun relies.
The swerving vines on the tall elms prevail,
Unhurt by southern show'rs, or northern hail;
They spread their gems, the genial warmth to share,
And boldly trust their buds in open air.
In this soft season (let me dare to sing)
The world was hatch'd by heav'n's imperial king:
In prime of all the year, and holidays of spring.
Then did the new creation first appear;
Nor other was the tenor of the year,
When laughing heav'n did the great birth attend,
And eastern winds their wintry breath suspend:
Then sheep first saw the sun in open fields,
And salvage beasts were sent to stock the wilds,
And golden stars flew up to light the skies,
And man's relentless race from stony quarries rise.
Nor could the tender, new creation bear
Th' excessive heats or coldness of the year;
But, chill'd by winter, or by summer fir'd,
The middle temper of the spring requir'd,
When warmth and moisture did at once abound,
And heav'n's indulgence brooded on the ground.
For what remains, in depth of earth secure
Thy cover'd plants, and dung with hot manure,
And shells and gravel in the ground inclose;
For thro' their hollow chinks the water flows,
Which, thus imbib'd, returns in misty dews,
And, steaming up, the rising plant renews.
Some husbandmen, of late, have found the way,
A hilly heap of stones above to lay,
And press the plants with sherds of potters' clay.
This fence against immod'rate rain they found,
Or when the Dog-star cleaves the thirsty ground.
Be mindful, when thou hast intomb'd the shoot,
With store of earth around to feed the root;
With iron teeth of rakes and prongs to move
The crusted earth, and loosen it above.
Then exercise thy sturdy steers to plow
Betwixt thy vines, and teach thy feeble row
To mount on reeds and wands, and, upward led,
On ashen poles to raise their forky head.
On these new crutches let them learn to walk,
Till, swerving upwards, with a stronger stalk,
They brave the winds, and, clinging to their guide,
On tops of elms at length triumphant ride.
But, in their tender nonage, while they spread
Their springing leafs, and lift their infant head,
And upward while they shoot in open air,
Indulge their childhood, and the nursling spare.
Nor exercise thy rage on newborn life;
But let thy hand supply the pruning knife,
And crop luxuriant stragglers, nor be loth
To strip the branches of their leafy growth:
But when the rooted vines, with steady hold,
Can clasp their elms, then, husbandman, be bold
To lop the disobedient boughs, that stray'd
Beyond their ranks; let crooked steel invade
The lawless troops, which discipline disclaim,
And their superfluous growth with rigor tame.
Next, fenc'd with hedges and deep ditches round,
Exclude th' incroaching cattle from thy ground,
While yet the tender gems but just appear,
Unable to sustain th' uncertain year;
Whose leaves are not alone foul winter's prey,
But oft by summer suns are scorch'd away,
And, worse than both, become th' unworthy browse
Of buffaloes, salt goats, and hungry cows.
For not December's frost, that burns the boughs,
Nor dog days' parching heat, that splits the rocks,
Are half so harmful as the greedy flocks,
Their venom'd bite, and scars indented on the stocks.
For this, the malefactor goat was laid
On Bacchus altar, and his forfeit paid.
At Athens thus Old Comedy began,
When round the streets the reeling actors ran,
In country villages, and crossing ways,
Contending for the prizes of their plays;
And, glad with Bacchus, on the grassy soil,
Leapt o'er the skins of goats besmear'd with oil.
Thus Roman youth, deriv'd from ruin'd Troy,
In rude Saturman rhymes express their joy;
With taunts, and laughter loud, their audience please,
Deform'd with vizards, cut from barks of trees.
In jolly hymns they praise the God of Wine,
Whose earthen images adorn the pine,
And there are hung on high, in honor of the vine:
A madness so devout the vineyard fills.
In hollow valleys and on rising hills,
On whate'er side he turns his honest face,
And dances in the wind, those fields are in his grace.
To Bacchus therefore let us tune our lays,
And in our mother tongue resound his praise.
Thin cakes in chargers, and a guilty goat,
Dragg'd by the horns, be to his altars brought;
Whose offer'd entrails shall his crime reproach,
And drip their fatness from the hazel broach.
To dress thy vines, new labor is requir'd;
Nor must the painful husbandman be tir'd:
For thrice, at least, in compass of the year,
Thy vineyard must employ the sturdy steer
To turn the glebe, besides thy daily pain
To break the clods, and make the surface plain,
T' unload the branches, or the leaves to thin,
That suck the vital moisture of the vine.
Thus in a circle runs the peasant's pain,
And the year rolls within itself again.
Ev'n in the lowest months, when storms have shed
From vines the hairy honors of their head,
Not then the drudging hind his labor ends,
But to the coming year his care extends:
Ev'n then the naked vine he persecutes;
His pruning knife at once reforms and cuts.
Be first to dig the ground; be first to burn
The branches lopp'd; and first the props return
Into thy house, that bore the burden'd vines;
But last to reap the vintage of thy wines.
Twice in the year luxuriant leaves o'er-shade
The incumber'd vine; rough brambles twice invade:
Hard labor both! Commend the large excess
Of spacious vineyards; cultivate the less.
Besides, in woods the shrubs of prickly thorn,
Sallows and reeds, on banks of rivers born,
Remain to cut; for vineyards useful found,
To stay thy vines, and fence thy fruitful ground.
Nor, when thy tender trees at length are bound,
When peaceful vines from pruning hooks are free,
When husbands have survey'd the last degree,
And utmost files of plants, and order'd ev'ry tree;
Ev'n when they sing at ease in full content,
Insulting o'er the toils they underwent,
Yet still they find a future task remain,
To turn the soil, and break the clods again:
And, after all, their joys are unsincere,
While falling rains on ripening grapes they fear.
Quite opposite to these are olives found:
No dressing they require, and dread no wound,
Nor rakes nor harrows need; but, fix'd below,
Rejoice in open air, and unconcern'dly grow.
The soil itself due nourishment supplies:
Plow but the furrows, and the fruits arise;
Content with small endeavors, till they spring.
Soft peace they figure, and sweet plenty bring:
Then olives plant, and hymns to Pallas sing.
Thus apple trees, whose trunks are strong to bear
Their spreading boughs, exert themselves in air,
Want no supply, but stand secure alone,
Not trusting foreign forces, but their own,
Till with the ruddy freight the bending branches groan.
Thus trees of nature, and each common bush,
Uncultivated thrive, and with red berries blush.
Vile shrubs are shorn for browse; the tow'ring height
Of unctuous trees are torches for the night.
And shall we doubt (indulging easy sloth),
To sow, to set, and to reform their growth?
To leave the lofty plants — the lowly kind
Are for the shepherd or the sheep design'd.
Ev'n humble broom and osiers have their use,
And shade for sleep, and food for flocks produce;
Hedges for corn, and honey for the bees,
Besides the pleasing prospect of the trees.
How goodly looks Cytorus, ever green
With boxen groves! with what delight are seen
Narycian woods of pitch, whose gloomy shade
Seems for retreat of heav'nly Muses made!
But much more pleasing are those fields to see,
That need not plows, nor human industry.
Ev'n cold Caucasian rocks with trees are spread,
And wear green forests on their hilly head.
Tho' bending from the blast of eastern storms,
Tho' shent their leaves, and shatter'd are their arms,
Yet Heav'n their various plants for use designs;
For houses, cedars; and, for shipping, pines;
Cypress provides for spokes and wheels of wains,
And all for keels of ships, that scour the wat'ry plains.
Willows in twigs are fruitful, elms in leaves;
The war from stubborn myrtle shafts receives;
From cornels, jav'lins; and the tougher yew
Receives the bending figure of a bow.
Nor box, nor limes, without their use are made;
Smooth-grain'd, and proper for the turner's trade;
Which curious hands may kerve, and steel with ease invade.
Light alder stems the Po's impetuous tide,
And bees in hollow oaks their honey hide.
Now balance with these gifts the fumy joys
Of wine, attended with eternal noise.
Wine urg'd to lawless lust the Centaurs train;
Thro' wine they quarrel'd, and thro' wine were slain.
O happy, if he knew his happy state,
The swain, who, free from business and debate,
Receives his easy food from Nature's hand,
And just returns of cultivated land!
No palace, with a lofty gate, he wants,
T' admit the tides of early visitants,
With eager eyes devouring, as they pass,
The breathing figures of Corinthian brass.
No statues threaten from high pedestals;
No Persian arras hides his homely walls
With antic vests, which thro' their shady fold
Betray the streaks of ill-dissembled gold.
He boasts no wool whose native white is dyed
With purple poison of Assyrian pride;
No costly drugs of Araby defile,
With foreign scents, the sweetness of his oil;
But easy quiet, a secure retreat,
A harmless life that knows not how to cheat,
With home-bred plenty the rich owner bless,
And rural pleasures crown his happiness.
Unvex'd with quarrels, undisturb'd with noise,
The country king his peaceful realm enjoys:
Cool grots, and living lakes, the flow'ry pride
Of meads, and streams that thro' the valley glide,
And shady groves that easy sleep invite,
And, after toilsome days, a soft repose at night.
Wild beasts of nature in his woods abound;
And youth, of labor patient, plow the ground,
Inur'd to hardship, and to homely fare.
Nor venerable age is wanting there
In great examples to the youthful tram;
Nor are the gods ador'd with rites profane.
From hence Astraea took her flight; and here
The prints of her departing steps appear.
Ye sacred Muses! with whose beauty fir'd
My soul is ravish'd, and my brain inspir'd;
Whose priest I am, whose holy fillets wear,
Would you your poet's first petition hear;
Give me the ways of wand'ring stars to know,
The depths of heav'n above, and earth below;
Teach me the various labors of the moon,
And whence proceed th' eclipses of the sun;
Why flowing tides prevail upon the main,
And in what dark recess they shrink again;
What shakes the solid earth; what cause delays
The summer nights, and shortens winter days.
But, if my heavy blood restrain the flight
Of my free soul, aspiring to the height
Of nature, and unclouded fields of light,
My next desire is, void of care and strife,
To lead a soft, secure, inglorious life —
A country cottage near a crystal flood,
A winding valley, and a lofty wood.
Some god conduct me to the sacred shades
Where Bacchanals are sung by Spartan maids,
Or lift me high to Haemus' hilly crown,
Or in the plains of Tempe lay me down,
Or lead me to some solitary place,
And cover my retreat from human race!
Happy the man, who, studying nature's laws,
Thro' known effects can trace the secret cause;
His mind possessing in a quiet state,
Fearless of fortune, and resign'd to fate!
And happy too is he who decks the bow'rs
Of Sylvans, and adores the rural pow'rs;
Whose mind, unmov'd, the bribes of courts can see,
Their glitt'ring baits, and purple slavery;
Nor hopes the people's praise, nor fears their frown,
Nor, when contending kindred tear the crown,
Will set up one, or pull another down.
Without concern he hears, but hears from far,
Of tumults, and descents, and distant war;
Nor with a superstitious fear is aw'd
For what befalls at home, or what abroad.
Nor envies he the rich their heapy store,
Nor his own peace disturbs with pity for the poor.
He feeds on fruits, which, of their own accord,
The willing ground and laden trees afford.
From his lov'd home no lucre him can draw;
The senate's mad decrees he never saw;
Nor heard, at bawling bars, corrupted law.
Some to the seas, and some to camps resort,
And some with impudence invade the court:
In foreign countries others seek renown;
With wars and taxes others waste their own,
And houses burn, and household gods deface,
To drink in bowls which glitt'ring gems enchase,
To loll on couches, rich with citron steads,
And lay their guilty limbs in Tyrian beds.
This wretch in earth intombs his golden ore,
Hov'ring and brooding on his buried store.
Some patriot fools to pop'lar praiseaspire,
Or public speeches, which worse fools admire,
While from both benches, with redoubled sounds,
Th' applause of lords and commoners abounds.
Some thro' ambition, or thro' thirst of gold,
Have slain their brothers, or their country sold;
And, leaving their sweet homes, in exile run
To lands that lie beneath another sun.
The peasant, innocent of all these ills,
With crooked plows the fertile fallows tills,
And the round year with daily labor fills.
From hence the country markets are supplied;
Enough remains for household charge beside,
His wife and tender children to sustain,
And gratefully to feed his dumb deserving train.
Nor cease his labors till the yellow field
A full return of bearded harvest yield:
A crop so plenteous, as the land to load,
O'ercome the crowded barns, and lodge on ricks abroad.
Thus ev'ry sev'ral season is employ'd,
Some spent in toil, and some in ease enjoy'd.
The yeaning ewes prevent the springing year;
The laded boughs their fruits in autumn bear:
'T is then the vine her liquid harvest yields,
Bak'd in the sunshine of ascending fields.
The winter comes; and then the falling mast
For greedy swine provides a full repast;
Then olives, ground in mills, their fatness boast,
And winter fruits are mellow'd by the frost.
His cares are eas'd with intervals of bliss:
His little children, climbing for a kiss,
Welcome their father's late return at night;
His faithful bed is crown'd with chaste delight.
His kine with swelling udders ready stand,
And, lowing for the pail, invite the milker's hand.
His wanton kids, with budding horns prepar'd,
Fight harmless battles in his homely yard:
Himself, in rustic pomp, on holidays,
To rural pow'rs a just oblation pays,
And on the green his careless limbs displays,
The hearth is in the midst; the herdsmen, round
The cheerful fire, provoke his health in goblets crown'd.
He calls on Bacchus, and propounds the prize:
The groom his fellow-groom at butts defies,
And bends his bow, and levels with his eyes;
Or, stripp'd for wrestling, smears his limbs with oil,
And watches with a trip his foe to foil.
Such was the life the frugal Sabines led;
So Remus and his brother god were bred,
From whom th' austere Etrurian virtue rose;
And this rude life our homely fathers chose.
Old Rome from such a race deriv'd her birth
(The seat of empire, and the conquer'd earth),
Which now on sev'n high hills triumphant reigns,
And in that compass all the world contains.
Ere Saturn's rebel son usurp'd the skies,
When beasts were only slain for sacrifice,
While peaceful Crete enjoy'd her ancient lord,
Ere sounding hammers forg'd th' inhuman sword,
Ere hollow drums were beat, before the breath
Of brazen trumpets rung the peals of death,
The good old god his hunger did assuage
With roots and herbs, and gave the Golden Age.
But, overlabor'd with so long a course,
'T is time to set at ease the smoking horse.