Eclogues

"Sub tegmine fagi."

"Nos patriae fines et dulcia linquimus arva."

"Deus nobis haec otia fecit."

"Non equidem invideo, miror magis."

"Spes gregis."

"Sic canibus catulos similes, sic matribus haedos noram, sic parvis componere magna solebam."

"Libertas, quae sera tamen respexit inertem."

"Fortunate senex, hic inter flumina nota Et fontis sacros frigus captabis opacum."

"Et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos."

"O formose puer, nimium ne crede colori."

"Habitarunt di quoque silvas."

"Trahit sua quemque voluptas."

"Quae te dementia cepit!"

"Nunc omnis ager, nunc omnis parturit arbor; Nunc frondent sylvae, nunc formosissimus annus."

"Ab Jove principium Musae: Jovis omnia plena."

"Latet anguis in herba."

"Non nostrum inter vos tantas componere lites."

"Claudite iam rivos, pueri; sat prata biberunt."

"Sicelides Musae, paulo maiora canamus."

"Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo."

"Iam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna."

"Iam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto."

"O mihi tum longae maneat pars ultima vitae, Spiritus et quantum sat erit tua dicere facta."

"Incipe, parve puer, risu cognoscere matrem."

"Incipe, parve puer: qui non risere parenti, Nec deus hunc mensa dea nec dignata cubili est."

"Atque deos atque astra vocat crudelia mater."

"Tale tuum carmen nobis, divine poeta, Quale sopor fessis."

"Candidus insuetum miratur limen Olympi Sub pedibus uidet nubes et sidera Daphnis."

"Ipsi laetitia voces ad sidera jactant Intonsi montes: ipsae jam carmina rupes, Ipsa sonant arbusta."

"Solvite me, pueri; satis est potuisse videri."

"Ambo florentes aetatibus, Arcades ambo, Et cantare pares, et repondere parati."

"Posthabui tamen illorum mea seria ludo."

"Hic tantum Boreae curamus frigora, quantum Aut numerum lupus aut torrentia flumina ripas."

"Ut vidi, ut perii, ut me malus abstulit error!"

"Nunc scio quid sit Amor."

"Certent et cycnis ululae."

"Non omnia possumus omnes."

"Nihil hic nisi carmina desunt."

"Carmina vel caelo possunt deducere lunam."

"Numero deus impare gaudet."

"Sed non ego credulus illis."

"Argutos inter strepere anser olores."

"Carpent tua poma nepotes."

"Omnia fert aetas, animum quoque."

"Cantantes licet usque (minus via laedit) eamus."

"Hic gelidi fontes, hic mollia prata, Lycori; hic nemus; hic ipso tecum consumerer aevo."

"Ipsae rursus concedite, silvae."

"Omnia vincit Amor; et nos cedamus Amori."

"As for Cicero, when he had heard some of the verses, his piercing judgement immediately perceived that these were productions of uncommon vigor, and ordered the whole eclogue to be recited from the beginning. Having familiarized himself with its every nuance, he declared it "the second great hope of Rome" [Magnae spes altera Romae], as if he himself were the first hope of the Latin language and Maro the second. These words Virgil later inserted in the Aeneid [12.168]."

"Molle atque facetum Vergilio annuerunt gaudentes rure Camenae."

"Alas! what boots it with uncessant care To tend the homely slighted Shepherds trade, And strictly meditate the thankles Muse, Were it not better don as others use, To sport with Amaryllis in the shade, Or with the tangles of Neaera’s hair?"

"But Virgil's songs are pure, except that horrid one Beginning with "Formosum Pastor Corydon.""

"[Virgil's] Eclogues are anything but a successful imitation of the idyls of Theocritus; they could not, in fact, be otherwise than unsuccessful: their object is to create something which could not prosper in a Roman soil. The shepherds of Theocritus are characters of ancient Sicilian poetry; I do not believe that they were taken from Greek poems. Daphnis, for example, is a Sicilian not a Greek hero. The idyls of Theocritus grew out of popular songs, and hence his poems have a genuineness, truth, and nationality. Now Virgil, in transplanting that kind of poetry to the plains of Lombardy, peoples that country with Greek shepherds, with their Greek names and Greek peculiarities,—in short, with beings that never could exist there."

"These poems of Virgil have always delighted me much; there is frequently either an elegance or a happiness which no translation can hope to equal."