WORKS.
61
Beware the January month: beware
Those hurtful days, that keenly piercing air
Which flays the herds; those frosts[1] that bitter sheathe
The nipping air and glaze the ground beneath.
From Thracia, nurse of steeds, comes rushing forth,
O'er the broad sea, the whirlwind of the north,
And moves it with his breath: then howl the shores
Of earth, and long and loud the forest roars.
He lays the oaks of lofty foliage low,
Tears the thick pine-trees from the mountains brow
And strews the vallies with their overthrow.
Those hurtful days, that keenly piercing air
Which flays the herds; those frosts[1] that bitter sheathe
The nipping air and glaze the ground beneath.
From Thracia, nurse of steeds, comes rushing forth,
O'er the broad sea, the whirlwind of the north,
And moves it with his breath: then howl the shores
Of earth, and long and loud the forest roars.
He lays the oaks of lofty foliage low,
Tears the thick pine-trees from the mountains brow
And strews the vallies with their overthrow.
- ↑ Those icy frosts.] Hesiod is said, in this description, to have imitated Orpheus: as if two poets could not describe the appearances and effects of winter, without copying from each other.Many and frequent from the clouds of heaven
The frosts rush down, on beeches and all trees,
Mountains and rocks and men: and every face
Is touch'd with sadness. They sore-nipping smite
The beasts among the hills: nor any man
Can leave his dwelling: quell'd in every limb
By galling cold: in all his limbs congeal'd.
lowed, like the leader of the flock, by all the modern editors. These viri doctissimi are for ever stumbling on school-boy absurdities in their labour to be critical and sagacious: "they strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel." Are the labourers to set about building huts and barns in the middle of harvest? Who does not see that "make nests," as old Chapman properly renders it, is a mere proverbial figure? "Make hay while the sun shines."
