But when sultry suns are high As it shades the water's edge, When the eye of evening looks Lengthens by the greenwood tree. DRAYTON'S "BOUQUET." HERE, damask roses, white and red, Out of my lap first take I, Which still shall run along the thread; My chiefest flower this make I. Among these roses in a row Next place I pinks in plenty ; These double pansies then, for show, And will not this be dainty? The pretty pansy then I'll tie Like stones some chain enchasing; And next to them, their near ally, The purple violet, placing. The curious, choice clove July-flower, Whose sundry colors of one kind, A course of cowslips then I'll stick, The lily and the fleur-de-lis, For color much contending, For that I them do only prize, The daffodil most dainty is, These in their natures only are Sweet-williams, campions, sops-in-wine, Thus have I made this wreath of mine, And finished it featly. BRYANT'S "SUMMER WIND." Ir is a sultry day; the sun has drunk The dew that lay upon the morning grass, There is no rustling in the lofty elm That canopies my dwelling, and its shade Scarce cools me. All is silent save the faint And interrupted murmur of the bee, Settling on the sick flowers, and then again Instantly on the wing. The plants around Feel the too potent fervors; the tall maize Rolls up its long green leaves; the clover droops Its tender foliage, and declines its blooms. But far in the fierce sunshine tower the hills, With all their growth of woods, silent and stern, As if the scorching heat and dazzling light Were but an element they loved. Bright clouds, Motionless pillars of the brazen heaven, — Their bases on the mountains- their white tops -- Shining in the far ether-fire the air O come and breathe upon the fainting earth Virgil's "Georgics." TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN BY DRYDEN. GEORGIC I. ARGUMENT. The poet, in the beginning of this book, propounds the general design of each Georgic; and, after a solemn invocation of all the gods who are any way related to his subject, he addresses himself in particular to Augustus, whom he compliments with divinity; and after strikes into his business. He shows the different kinds of tillage proper to different soils, traces out the original of agriculture, gives a catalogue of the husbandman's tools, specifies the employments peculiar to each season, describes the changes of the weather, with the signs in heaven and earth that forebode them. Instances many of the prodigies that happened near the time of Julius Cæsar's death. And shuts up all with a supplication to the gods for the safety of Augustus, and the preservation of Rome. THE SUBJECT STATED; FARMING, SOILS, GRAIN, SHEEP, CATTLE, VINES, BEES. WHAT makes a plenteous harvest, when to turn The fruitful soil, and when to sow the corn; The care of sheep, of oxen, and of kine; And how to raise on elms the teeming vine; The birth and genius of the frugal bee, I sing, Mæcenas, and I sing to thee. INVOCATION TO VARIOUS DEITIES; BACCHUS, CERES, PAN, MINERVA, ETC. Ye deities! who fields and plains protect, Thou founder of the plough and ploughman's toil; year. Whether in after-times to be declared PLOUGHING. THE PROPER TIME FOR PLOUGHING. While yet the spring is young, while earth unbinds PARTICULAR SOILS SUITED TO PECULIAR PRODUCTS; TMOLUS, Of seeds and plants, and what will thrive and rise, This ground with Bacchus, that with Ceres suits; (In hopes of palms) a race of running steeds. WHEN, HOW, AND WHAT TO PLOUGH. Then borrow part of winter for thy corn; And early with thy team the glebe in furrows turn. That while the turf lies open and unbound, Succeeding suns may bake the mellow ground. But if the soil be barren, only scar The surface, and but lightly print the share, When cold Arcturus rises with the sun : Lest wicked weeds the corn should over-run In watery soils; or lest the barren sand Should suck the moisture from the thirsty land. FALLOWS. ROTATION. ASHES. Both these unhappy soils the swain forbears, At least, where vetches, pulse, and tares, have stood, ADVANTAGES OF BURNINGS. Long practice has a sure improvement found, With kindled fires to burn the barren ground; When the light stubble, to the flames resigned, Is driven along, and crackles in the wind. Whether from hence the hollow womb of earth Is warmed with secret strength for better birth; Or when the latent vice is cured by fire, Redundant humors through the pores expire; Or that the warmth distends the chinks, and makes New breathings, whence new nourishment she takes; Or that the heat the gaping ground constrains, New knits the surface, and new strings the veins, Lest soaking showers should pierce her secret seat, SOILS SHOULD BE WELL PULVERIZED. Nor is the profit small the peasant makes, [rakes, Who smoothes with harrows, or who pounds with The crumbling clod: nor Ceres from on high Regards his labors with a grudging eye; Nor his, who ploughs across the furrowed grounds, And on the back of earth inflicts new wounds; For he with frequent exercise commands The unwilling soil, and tames the stubborn lands. DROUGHT AND MOISTURE.-IRRIGATION. MYSIA, GARGAF S. FEEDING DOWN THE WHEAT. DRAINING.- GEESE, CRANES, WEEDS, SUCCORY. And lest the stem, too feeble for the freight, Should scarce sustain the head's unwieldy weight, Sends in his feeding flocks betimes to invade The rising bulk of the luxuriant blade; Ere yet the aspiring offspring of the grain O'ertops the ridges of the furrowed plain : And drains the standing waters, when they yield Too large a beverage to the drunken field. But most in autumn, and the showery spring, When dubious months uncertain weather bring; When fountains open, and impetuous rain Swells hasty brooks, and pours upon the plain ; When earth with slime and mud is covered o'er, Or hollow places spew their wat❜ry store. Nor yet the ploughman, nor the laboring steer, Sustain alone the hazards of the year; But glutton geese, and the Strymonian crane, With foreign troops, invade the tender grain : And towering weeds malignant shadows yield; And spreading succory chokes the rising field. UTILITY OF TOIL AND CARE. PROPERTY. — COMFORTS INCREASED. The sire of gods and men, with hard decrees, Forbids our plenty to be bought with ease: And wills that mortal men, inured to toil, EVILS AND DIFFICULTIES EXIST TO STIMULATE HUMAN ENER- Jove added venom to the viper's brood, And swelled, with raging storms, the peaceful flood: Commissioned hungry wolves to infest the fold, And shook from oaken leaves the liquid gold. Removed from human reach the cheerful fire, And from the rivers bade the wine retire: That studious need might useful arts explore; From furrowed fields to reap the fruitful store: And force the veins of clashing flints to expire The lurking seeds of their celestial fire. NAVIGATION AND OTHER ARTS. Then first on seas the hollowed alder swam ; Then sailors quartered heaven, and found a name For every fixed and every wandering star : The Pleiads, Hyads, and the Northern Car. Then toils for beasts, and lime for birds, were found, And deep-mouthed dogs did forest walks surround: And casting-nets were spread in shallow brooks, Drags in the deep, and baits were hung on hooks. Then saws were toothed, and sounding axes made (For wedges first did yielding wood invade), And various arts in order did succeed :What cannot endless labor, urged by need? LABOR, CARE, AND PIETY, EVER NECESSARY. — WEEDS ; DARNEL, BIRDS. First Ceres taught, the ground with grain to sow, And armed with iron shares the crooked plough; When now Dodonian oaks no more supplied Their mast, and trees their forest fruit denied. Soon was his labor doubled to the swain, And blasting mildews blackened all his grain. Tough thistles choked the fields, and killed the corn, And an unthrifty crop of weeds was born. Then burs and brambles, an unbidden crew Of graceless guests, the unhappy fields subdue: And oats unblest and darnel domineers, And shoots its head above the shining ears. So that unless the land with daily care Is exercised, and with an iron war Of rakes and harrows the proud foes expelled, And birds with clamors frighted from the field; Unless the boughs are lopped that shade the plain, And heaven invoked with vows for fruitful rain, On other crops you may with envy look, And shake for food the long-abandoned oak. FARM IMPLEMENTS; PLOUGHS, WAGONS, SLED, TUMBRIL, HURDLES, FLAIL, VAN. Nor must we pass untold what arms they wield, Who labor tillage and the furrowed field: Without whose aid the ground her corn denies, And nothing can be sown, and nothing rise. The crooked plough, the share, the towering height Of wagons, and the cart's unwieldy weight; The sled, the tumbril, hurdles, and the flail, The fan of Bacchus, with the flying sail. These all must be prepared, if ploughmen hope The promised blessing of a bounteous crop. HOW TO MAKE A PLOUGH. Young elms with early force in copses bow, I could be long in precepts, but I fear HOW TO MAKE A THRESHING-FLOOR IN SOUTHERN EUROPE; FIELD-MOUSE, MOLE, WEASEL, ANT. Delve of convenient depth your threshing-floor : With tempered clay then fill and face it o'er : And let the weighty roller run the round, To smooth the surface of the unequal ground; Lest, cracked with summer heats, the flooring flies, Or sinks, and through the crannies weeds arise. For sundry foes the rural realms surround: The field-mouse builds her garner under ground, For gathered grain the blind, laborious mole In winding mazes works her hidden hole. In hollow caverns vermin make abode, The hissing serpent, and the swelling toad: The corn-devouring weasel here abides, And the wise ant her wintry store provides. SIGNS OF A PLENTIFUL SEASON. Mark well the flowering almonds in the wood; If odorous blooms the bearing branches load, The glebe will answer to the sylvan reign, Great heats will follow, and large crops of grain But if a wood of leaves o'ershade the tree, Such and so barren will thy harvest be: In vain the hind shall vex the threshing-floor, For empty chaff and straw will be thy store. CHOICE AND PREPARATION OF SEED. DOWNWARD TENDENCY OF THINGS. Some steep their seed, and some in cauldrons boil With vigorous nitre, and with lees of oil, O'er gentle fires; the exuberant juice to drain, And swell the flattering husks with fruitful grain. Yet is not the success for years assured, Though chosen is the seed, and fully cured; Unless the peasant, with his annual pain, Renews his choice, and culls the largest grain. Thus all below, whether by nature's curse, SOWING TIME INDICATED BY THE STARS.-ARCTURUS; POPPY, BEANS, CLOVER, MILLET; ALDEBARAN. [sea. Nor must the ploughman less observe the skies, When the Kids, Dragon, and Arcturus rise, Than sailors homeward bent, who cut their way Through Helle's stormy straits, and oyster-breeding But when Astræa's Balance, hung on high, Betwixt the nights and days divides the sky, Then yoke your oxen, sow your winter grain ; Till cold December comes with driving rain. Linseed and fruitful poppy bury warm, In a dry season, and prevent the storm. Sow beans and clover in a rotten soil, And millet, rising from your annual toil : When with his golden horns, in full career, The Bull beats down the barriers of the year; And Argos and the Dog forsake the northern sphere. UNDER WHAT SIGNS TO SOW WHEAT. ARIADNE'S CROWN; VETCHES, LENTILS; BOÖTES. But if And the bright Gnosian diadem downward bend; Some swains have sown before, but most have found THE FIVE ZONES, OR CLIMATES; THE TWO HABITABLE For this, through twelve bright signs Apollo guides The year, and earth in several climes divides. Five girdles bind the skies, the torrid zone Glows with the passing and repassing sun. Far on the right and left, the extremes of heaven To frosts and snows and bitter blasts are given. Betwixt the midst and these, the gods assigned Two habitable seats for human-kind : And cross their limits cut a sloping way, Which the twelve signs in beauteous order sway. Two poles turn round the globe; one seen to rise O'er Scythian hills, and one in Libyan skies. The first sublime in heaven, the last is whirled Below the regions of the nether world. There, as they say, perpetual night is found, WHEN TO REAP, SOW, SAIL; WORK FOR RAINY WEATHER. WORK FOR HOLIDAYS. [share, Even holidays and feasts permission yield, To float the meadows, or to fence the field, To fire the brambles, snare the birds, and steep In wholesome water-falls the woolly sheep. And oft the drudging ass is driven, with toil, To neighboring towns with apples and with oil : Returning late and laden home with gain Of bartered pitch, and hand-mills for the grain. LUCKY AND UNLUCKY DAYS. The lucky days, in each revolving moon, For labor choose: the fifth be sure to shun: That gave the Furies and pale Pluto birth, And armed against the skies the sons of earth. With mountains piled on mountains, thrice they To scale the steepy battlements of Jove: [strove And thrice his lightning and red thunder played, And their demolished works in ruin laid. The seventh is, next the tenth, the best to join Young oxen to the yoke, and plant the vine. Then weavers stretch your stays upon the weft : The ninth is good for travel, bad for theft. EVENING LABORS OF THE FARMER AND HIS WIFE. — THE COCK. Some works in dead of night are better done; Or when the morning dew prevents the sun. Parched meads and stubble mow, by Phoebe's light; Which both require the coolness of the night; For moisture then abounds, and pearly rains Descend in silence to refresh the plains. The wife and husband equally conspire, To work by night, and rake the winter fire. |