Page:Eclogues of Virgil (1908).djvu/45

 "Come to us here, oh Galatea fair!

"Why ling'rest thou, rejoicing in the wave?

"We name the glowing spring.—The sparkling streams,

"Fill the warm earth with blossoms manifold—

"The tall white poplar overhangs the cave,

"And clinging vines weave for us bowers of shade.

"Come hither! leave the tossing floods to beat

"Upon the shore."

What were those verses then,

Which once I heard thee sing, as thou didst roam

In the clear night? Familiar seems the time,

Could I the words remember.

"Daphnis, tell

"Why thou dost watch alway the old-time signs

"Now that the star of Cæsar mounts aloft?

"Beneath his star, we know, the fields of corn

"Were to rejoice, and on the sunny hills

"The grapes would purple glow. Now, Daphnis, graft

"Thy pear trees, that thy children's children may

"Eat of their fruit. How time wears all things out!

"Even the memory. I can call to mind

"Long days of summer, in my boyhood spent,

"Singing the hours away—but now, alas!

"I have forgotten many of my songs—

"And Mœris too—his voice begins to fail

"As old folks say—Wolves caught first sight of him"

But for those songs—Menalcas willingly

Will sing them to thee.

Make no more excuse