Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/364

With his own hand, the Guardian of the Bees, 169
For Slips of Pines, may search the Mountain Trees:
And with wild Thyme and Sav'ry, plant the Plain,
Till his hard horny Fingers ake with Pain:
And deck with fruitful Trees the Fields around,
And with refreshing Waters drench the Ground.
Now, did I not so near my Labours end, $\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$175
Strike Sail, and hast'ning to the Harbour tend;
My Song to Flow'ry Gardens might extend.
To teach the vegetable Arts, to sing
The Pæstan Roses, and their double Spring:
How Succ'ry drinks the running Streams, and how 180
Green Beds of Parsley near the River grow;
How Cucumers along the Surface creep,
With crooked Bodies, and with Bellies deep.
The late Narcissus, and the winding Trail
Of Bears-foot, Myrtles green, and Ivy pale. 185
For where with stately Tow'rs Tarentum stands,
And deep Galesus soaks the yellow Sands,
I chanc'd an Old Corycian Swain to know,
Lord of few Acres, and those barren too;
Unfit for Sheep or Vines, and more unfit to sow: 190
Yet lab'ring well his little Spot of Ground,
Some scatt'ring Potherbs here and there he found:
Which cultivated with his daily Care,
And bruis'd with Vervain, were his frugal Fare.
Sometimes white Lyllies did their Leaves afford, 195
With wholsom Poppy-flow'rs, to mend his homely Board: