Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ECLOGUE 6, by PUBLIUS VERGILIUS MARO


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ECLOGUE 6, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My muse first stooped to trifle, like the greek's
Last Line: And journeyed all unwelcome up the sky.
Alternate Author Name(s): Virgil; Vergil


MY muse first stooped to trifle, like the Greek's,
In numbers; and, unblushing, dwelt in woods.
I sang embattled kings: but Cynthius plucked
My ear, and warned me: "Tityrus, fat should be
A shepherd's wethers, but his lays thin-drawn."
So -- for enough and more will strive to tell,
Varus, thy deeds, and pile up grisly wars --
On pipe of straw will I my wood-notes sing
I sing not all unbid. Yet oh! should one
Smit by great love, should one read this my lay --
Then with thee, Varus, shall our myrtle-groves,
And all these copses, ring. Right dearly loves
Phoebus the page that opens with thy name.

On, sisters!
-- Chromis and Mnasylus saw
(Two lads) Silenus in a cave asleep:
As usual, swoln with yesterday's debauch.
Just where it fell his garland lay hard by;
And on worn handle hung his ponderous can.
They -- for the old man oft had cheated each
Of promised songs -- draw near, and make his wreaths
Fetters to bind him. AEgle makes a third,
(AEgle, the loveliest of the Naiad maids,)
To back their fears: and, as his eyes unclose,
Paints brow and temples red with mulberry.
He, laughing at the trick, cries, "Wherefore weave
These fetters? Lads, unbind me: 'tis enough
But to have seemed to have me in your power.
Ye ask a song; then listen. You I'll pay
With song: for her I've other meed in store."
And forthwith he begins. Then might you see
Move to the music Faun and forest-beast,
And tall oaks bow their heads. Not so delights
Parnassus in Apollo: not so charmed
At Orpheus Rhodope and Ismarus.

For this he sang: -- How, drawn from that vast void,
Gathered the germs of earth and air and sea
And liquid flame. How the Beginning sprang
Thence, and the young world waxed into a ball.
Then Earth, grown harder, walled the sea-god off
In seas, and slowly took substantial form:
Till on an awed world dawned the wondrous sun,
And straight from heaven, by clouds unbroken, fell
The showers: as woods first bourgeoned, here and there
A wild beast wandering over hills unknown.
Of Pyrrha casting stones, and Saturn's reign,
The stolen fire, the eagles of the rock,
He sings: and then, beside what spring last seen
The sailors called for Hylas -- till the shore
All rang with 'Hylas,' 'Hylas:' -- and consoles
(Happy if horned herds never had been born,)
With some fair bullock's love Pasiphae.
Ah! hapless maid! What madness this of thine?
Once a king's daughters made believe to low,
And ranged the leas: but neither stooped to ask
Those base beasts' love: though each had often feared
To find the ploughman's gear about her neck,
And felt on her smooth brow for budding horns.
Ah! hapless maid! Thou roam'st from hill to hill:
He under some dark oak -- his snowy side
Cushioned on hyacinths -- chews the pale-green grass,
Or woos some favourite from the herd. "Close, Nymphs,
Dictaean Nymphs, oh close the forest-glades!
If a bull's random footprints by some chance
Should greet me! Lured, may be, by greener grass,
Or in the herd's wake following, vagrant kine
May bring him straight into my father's fold!"
-- Then sings he of that maid who paused to gaze
At the charmed apples: -- and surrounds with moss,
Bitter tree-moss, the daughters of the Sun,
Till up they spring tall alders. -- Then he sings
How Gallus, wandering to Parnassus' stream,
A sister led to the Aonian hills,
And, in a mortal's honour, straight uprose
The choir of Phoebus: How that priest of song,
The shepherd Linus, -- all his hair with flowers
And bitter parsley shining, -- spake to him.
"Take -- lo! the Muses give it thee -- this pipe,
Once that Ascraean's old: to this would he
Sing till the sturdy mountain-ash came down.
Sing thou on this, whence sprang AEolia's grove,
Till in no wood Apollo glory more."
So on and on he sang: -- How Nisus, famed
In story, troubled the Dulichian ships;
And in the deep seas bid her sea-dogs rend
The trembling sailors. Tereus' tale he told,
How he was changed: what banquet Philomel,
What present, decked for him: and how she flew
To the far wilderness; and flying paused --
(Poor thing) -- to flutter round her ancient home.

All songs which one day Phoebus sang to charmed
Eurotas -- and the laurels learnt them off --
He sang. The thrilled vales fling them to the stars.
Till Hesper bade them house and count their flocks.
And journeyed all unwelcome up the sky.





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