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WORKS AND DAYS: GOOD DAYS AND BAD (1), by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Reckon the days that zeus ordains, and in due array
Last Line: That is the time for a wife to set up her loom and begin.


RECKON the days that Zeus ordains, and in due array
Point them out to your slaves: show how the thirtieth day
For the o'erlooking of work and dealing out stores is best.

These be the days that come from the master-mind of Zeus,
While men have eyes to see and apply the truth to use.
Chief of the hallowed days are the first and fourth and seventh,
(Seventh when Leto bore Apollo with sword of gold)
Eighth and ninth as well, these two, as the moon grows old,
For helping the works of man have a worth above the rest.

Yet the eleventh and twelfth are also of good repute
Whether for shearing sheep or garnering kindly fruit;
Only the twelfth herein is better far than the eleventh,

For on the twelfth the Spider swinging in air doth spin
Webs in full day, and the Wise One gets her harvest in:
That is the time for a wife to set up her loom and begin.





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