Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/243

Geor. I. For he with frequent Exercise Commands Th' unwilling Soil, and tames the stubborn Lands. Ye Swains, invoke the Pow'rs who rule the Sky, For a moist Summer, and a Winter dry: For Winter drout rewards the Peasant's Pain, And broods indulgent on the bury'd Grain. Hence Mysia boasts her Harvests, and the tops Of Gargarus admire their happy Crops. When first the Soil receives the fruitful Seed, Make no delay, but cover it with speed: So fenc'd from Cold; the plyant Furrows break, Before the surly Clod resists the Rake. And call the Floods from high, to rush amain With pregnant Streams, to swell the teeming Grain. Then when the fiery Suns too fiercely play, And shrivell'd Herbs on with'ring Stems decay, The wary Ploughman, on the Mountain's Brow, Undams his watry Stores, huge Torrents flow; And, ratling down the Rocks, large moisture yield, Temp'ring the thirsty Fever of the Field. And lest the Stem, too feeble for the freight, Shou'd scarce sustain the head's unweildy weight, Sends in his feeding Flocks betimes t'invade The rising bulk of the luxuriant Blade; E'er yet th'aspiring Off-spring of the Grain O'ertops the ridges of the furrow'd Plain: And drains the standing Waters, when they yield Too large a Bev'rage to the drunken Field. Rh