Page:Virgil - The Georgics, Thomas Nevile, 1767.djvu/52

 

Groups of wild olives interspers'd make known 205
The spot, and fields with sylvan berries strown.
But where the ground a sweet'ning moisture cheers,
And the fair plain in verdant pomp appears,
(Such as low valleys spread before the sight,
When rivers, melting from the rocky height, 210
Feed them with ooze;) and, to the south-wind bare,
Breeds ferns, detested by the crooked share:
Here to your warmest wish in pride shall grow
Vines, whose swoll'n clusters in full streams shall flow;
Here the juice mellows, that in hallow'd hour, 215
When the puft Tuscan's pipe has ceas'd, we pour
From golden goblets, as in chargers bent
The reeking loads we to the Gods present.

But should the care of herds, or calves more please,
Or lambs, or kids tormenting tender trees, 220
Seek lawns afar on rich Tarentum's coast,
Fields, such as hapless Mantua once could boast,
Feeding in mossy streams where swans are found:
Here herb for cattle, here clear springs abound;
And what in one long day the grazing train 225
Crop, a short night's cool dew restores again.
A black glebe, fat beneath the prest plough-share,
Of texture, such as we by art prepare,

Is