Georgics
- 1.118.201
Seek solace for thine hunger.
- 1.160.202
Now to tell
- 1.160.203
The sturdy rustics' weapons, what they are,
- 1.160.204
Without which, neither can be sown nor reared
- 1.160.205
The fruits of harvest; first the bent plough's share
- 1.160.206
And heavy timber, and slow-lumbering wains
- 1.160.207
Of the Eleusinian mother, threshing-sleighs
- 1.160.208
And drags, and harrows with their crushing weight;
- 1.160.209
Then the cheap wicker-ware of Celeus old,
- 1.160.210
Hurdles of arbute, and thy mystic fan,
- 1.160.211
Iacchus; which, full tale, long ere the time
- 1.160.212
Thou must with heed lay by, if thee await
- 1.160.213
Not all unearned the country's crown divine.
- 1.160.214
While yet within the woods, the elm is tamed
- 1.160.215
And bowed with mighty force to form the stock,
- 1.160.216
And take the plough's curved shape, then nigh the root
- 1.160.217
A pole eight feet projecting, earth-boards twain,
- 1.160.218
And share-beam with its double back they fix.
- 1.160.219
For yoke is early hewn a linden light,
- 1.160.220
And a tall beech for handle, from behind
- 1.160.221
To turn the car at lowest: then o'er the hearth
- 1.160.222
The wood they hang till the smoke knows it well.
- 1.176.223
Many the precepts of the men of old
- 1.176.224
I can recount thee, so thou start not back,
- 1.176.225
And such slight cares to learn not weary thee.
- 1.176.226
And this among the first: thy threshing-floor
- 1.176.227
With ponderous roller must be levelled smooth,
- 1.176.228
And wrought by hand, and fixed with binding chalk,
- 1.176.229
Lest weeds arise, or dust a passage win
- 1.176.230
Splitting the surface, then a thousand plagues
- 1.176.231
Make sport of it: oft builds the tiny mouse
- 1.176.232
Her home, and plants her granary, underground,
- 1.176.233
Or burrow for their bed the purblind moles,
- 1.176.234
Or toad is found in hollows, and all the swarm
- 1.176.235
Of earth's unsightly creatures; or a huge
- 1.176.236
Corn-heap the weevil plunders, and the ant,
- 1.176.237
Fearful of coming age and penury.
- 1.176.238
Mark too, what time the walnut in the woods
- 1.176.239
With ample bloom shall clothe her, and bow down
- 1.176.240
Her odorous branches, if the fruit prevail,
- 1.176.241
Like store of grain will follow, and there shall come
- 1.176.242
A mighty winnowing-time with mighty heat;
- 1.176.243
But if the shade with wealth of leaves abound,
- 1.176.244
Vainly your threshing-floor will bruise the stalks
- 1.176.245
Rich but in chaff. Many myself have seen
- 1.176.246
Steep, as they sow, their pulse-seeds, drenching them
- 1.176.247
With nitre and black oil-lees, that the fruit
- 1.176.248
Might swell within the treacherous pods, and they
- 1.176.249
Make speed to boil at howso small a fire.
- 1.176.250
Yet, culled with caution, proved with patient toil,
- 1.176.251
These have I seen degenerate, did not man
- 1.176.252
Put forth his hand with power, and year by year
- 1.176.253
Choose out the largest. So, by fate impelled,
- 1.176.254
Speed all things to the worse, and backward borne
- 1.176.255
Glide from us; even as who with struggling oars
- 1.176.256
Up stream scarce pulls a shallop, if he chance
- 1.176.257
His arms to slacken, lo! with headlong force
- 1.176.258
The current sweeps him down the hurrying tide.
- 1.204.259
Us too behoves Arcturus' sign observe,
- 1.204.260
And the Kids' seasons and the shining Snake,
- 1.204.261
No less than those who o'er the windy main
- 1.204.262
Borne homeward tempt the Pontic, and the jaws
- 1.204.263
Of oyster-rife Abydos. When the Scales
- 1.204.264
Now poising fair the hours of sleep and day
- 1.204.265
Give half the world to sunshine, half to shade,
- 1.204.266
Then urge your bulls, my masters; sow the plain
- 1.204.267
Even to the verge of tameless winter's showers
- 1.204.268
With barley: then, too, time it is to hide
- 1.204.269
Your flax in earth, and poppy, Ceres' joy,
- 1.204.270
Aye, more than time to bend above the plough,
- 1.204.271
While earth, yet dry, forbids not, and the clouds
- 1.204.272
Are buoyant. With the spring comes bean-sowing;
- 1.204.273
Thee, too, Lucerne, the crumbling furrows then
- 1.204.274
Receive, and millet's annual care returns,
- 1.204.275
What time the white bull with his gilded horns
- 1.204.276
Opens the year, before whose threatening front,
- 1.204.277
Routed the dog-star sinks. But if it be
- 1.204.278
For wheaten harvest and the hardy spelt,
- 1.204.279
Thou tax the soil, to corn-ears wholly given,
- 1.204.280
Let Atlas' daughters hide them in the dawn,
- 1.204.281
The Cretan star, a crown of fire, depart,
- 1.204.282
Or e'er the furrow's claim of seed thou quit,
- 1.204.283
Or haste thee to entrust the whole year's hope
- 1.204.284
To earth that would not. Many have begun
- 1.204.285
Ere Maia's star be setting; these, I trow,
- 1.204.286
Their looked-for harvest fools with empty ears.
- 1.204.287
But if the vetch and common kidney-bean
- 1.204.288
Thou'rt fain to sow, nor scorn to make thy care
- 1.204.289
Pelusiac lentil, no uncertain sign
- 1.204.290
Bootes' fall will send thee; then begin,
- 1.204.291
Pursue thy sowing till half the frosts be done.
- 1.231.292
Therefore it is the golden sun, his course
- 1.231.293
Into fixed parts dividing, rules his way
- 1.231.294
Through the twelve constellations of the world.
- 1.231.295
Five zones the heavens contain; whereof is one
- 1.231.296
Aye red with flashing sunlight, fervent aye
- 1.231.297
From fire; on either side to left and right
- 1.231.298
Are traced the utmost twain, stiff with blue ice,
- 1.231.299
And black with scowling storm-clouds, and betwixt
- 1.231.300
These and the midmost, other twain there lie,
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