Page:Virgil - The Georgics, Thomas Nevile, 1767.djvu/23

 

The chok'd corn withers; a rough wood of weeds,
Caltrops and clivers, to the grain succeeds,
The fields' fair produce luckless darnels spoil,
And barren wild-oats lord it o'er the soil.
Go then, and daily harrow well the ground, 185
And scare with noises birds that hover round;
The trees' dark umbrage with your hook restrain,
And from the skies implore the kindly rain:
Else others' sheaves you'll see with longing eye;
And to the oak for mast half-famish'd fly. 190

Learn next the tools of Rustics; these unknown,
No gladd'ning crops can rise, no seed be sown.
The share, and crooked plough's more pond'rous frame,
And wain slow-moving of Eleusis' Dame;
Nor be the cumbrous harrows left unsaid, 195
Nor sleds, nor drays, nor crates of Arbutes made;
Nor Celeus' implements of osier twine,
Mean tools, nor Bacchus' winnowing fan divine.
All these with forecast sage you must prepare,
If ought of rural honours claim your care. 200

First in the woods by force is taught to bend
The tall tough elm, and in a plough-tail end:
To this eight feet in length, a pole; two ears;
A share-beam next with double back appears:

An