Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ECLOGUE 10, by PUBLIUS VERGILIUS MARO


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ECLOGUE 10, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Melodious arethusa, o'er my verse
Last Line: With willing steps pursues another there.
Alternate Author Name(s): Virgil; Vergil
Variant Title(s): The Forsaken Lover


MELODIOUS Arethusa, o'er my verse
Shed thou once more the spirit of thy stream.
Who denies verse to Gallus? So, when thou
Glidest beneath the green and purple gleam
Of Syracusan waters, mayst thou flow
Unmingled with the bitter Doric dew!
Begin, and, whilst the goats are browsing now
The soft leaves, in our way let us pursue
The melancholy loves of Gallus. List!
We sing not to the dead; the wild woods knew
His sufferings, and their echoes ...
Young Naiads, in what far woodlands wild
Wandered ye when unworthy love possessed
Your Gallus? Not where Pindus is uppiled,
Nor where Parnassus' sacred mount, nor where
Aonian Aganippe expands
The laurels and the myrtle-copses dim.
The pine-encircled mountain, Maenalus,
The cold crags of Lycaeus, weep for him;
And Sylvan, crowned with rustic coronals,
Came shaking in his speed the budding wands
And heavy lilies which he bore; we knew
Pan the Arcadian.

What madness is this, Gallus? Thy heart's care
With willing steps pursues another there.





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