Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/238

Ye Deities! who Fields and Plains protect,
Who rule the Seasons, and the Year direct;
Bacchus and fost'ring Ceres, Pow'rs Divine,
Who gave us Corn for Mast, for Water Wine:10
Ye Fawns, propitious to the Rural Swains,
Ye Nymphs that haunt the Mountains and the Plains,
Join in my Work, and to my Numbers bring
Your needful Succour, for your Gifts I sing.
And thou, whose Trident struck the teeming Earth,
And made a Passage for the Coursers Birth.16
And thou, for whom the Cæan Shore sustains
Thy Milky Herds, that graze the Flow'ry Plains.
And thou, the Shepherds tutelary God,
Leave, for a while, O Pan! thy lov'd Abode: 20
And, if Arcadian Fleeces be thy Care,
From Fields and Mountains to my Song repair.
Inventor, Pallas, of the fat'ning Oyl,
Thou Founder of the Plough and Plough-man's Toyl;
And thou, whose Hands the Shrowd-like Cypress rear;$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$
Come all ye Gods and Goddesses, that wear26
The rural Honours, and increase the Year.
You, who supply the Ground with Seeds of Grain;
And you, who swell those Seeds with kindly Rain:
And chiefly thou, whose undetermin'd State 30
Is yet the Business of the Gods Debate:
Whether in after Times to be declar'd
The Patron of the World, and Rome's peculiar Guard,