Page:Virgil - The Georgics, Thomas Nevile, 1767.djvu/48

 

Thy praise, O Rhætica! yet rashly vain
Cope not with wine Falernian vaults contain. 110
Amminean vines of generous juice why sing,
Rever'd by Tmolus' and Phanæus' King;
Or less Argitis, yet unmatch'd in song,
For flowing largely, and for lasting long?
Nor shall I leave in silence thee, of Rhodes, 115
To men delicious, grateful to the Gods!
Nor thee, Bumastus, of protuberant size!
But who their names and numbers can comprise?
And what avails it? who would learn, as well
Whirl'd by the West the Libyan sands might tell, 120
Or, by the furious East when ships are tost,
Count ev'ry wave, that beats th' Ionian coast.

Nor yet all trees alike all lands approve:
The willow rivers, alders marshes love;
The barren ash in rocky mountain-ground 125
Rejoices; myrtles on sea-shores abound:
Bacchus affects the breezy hilly height;
Yews in the cold and Boreal blasts delight.
The cultur'd globe's extremest ends survey,
The Scythian wilds, and realms of rising Day, 130
Trees separate nations: Indian climes alone
Bear the black Eben; frankincense her own

Soft