Page:Virgil - The Georgics, Thomas Nevile, 1767.djvu/86

 74 Yes; to the proud retreats with joy I go,

There, where descending to the spring below

No poet's tread e'er mark'd the winding way:

Now, Pales! I must lift a loftier lay.

First let your sheep, till Spring returning spread

His verdant favours, in warm folds be fed:

And, lest the cold the tender flocks molest,

And scurfy scab, and loathsome corns infest,

Let straw with lavish hand be strown around,

And with fern cover all the flinty ground.

The shaggy goats (from sheep to shift the theme)

Ask but green arbutes and the running stream.

Fronting the wintry sun let their cotes lie,

From winds, and open to the southern sky,

When at the closing year the wat'ry Sign

With drizzling urn now hastens to decline.

Nor with less diligence your goats regard,

Nor deem your pains will meet a less reward,

Tho' proud Miletus costly fleeces vend,

Rich with the crimson, Tyrian juices lend.

Their breed more numerous; hence their milky store

Abundant swells; their udders eas'd, the more

Their frothy brims the teemful vessels show,

From their prest teats a gladder stream will flow. A