WHENCE joyful harvests spring, what heavenly sign
Invites the plough, and weds to elms the vine;
How flocks and herds by kindly nature thrive,
And sage experience stores the frugal hive;
I sing. Ye lights of heaven! whose sovereign sway
Leads on the year around th' ethereal way:
Bacchus and Ceres! if beneath your reign
Earth chang'd Chaonian mast for golden grain,
And the new grape's uncultur'd vintage gave
To mix its sweets with Achelóus' wave;
Ye, too, whose gifts my votive numbers guide,
Fauns and fair Dryads that o'er swains preside;
Thou! whose dread trident shook the womb of earth,
And loos'd the steed, that neighing sprung to birth;
Guardian of woods! whose herds a snowy train,
Browse the rich shrubs that shade the Cæan plain ;
God of the fleece, whom grateful shepherds love,
Oh! leave thy native haunt, Lycæus' grove;
And if thy Mænalus yet claim thy care,
Hear, Tegexan Pan! th’invoking prayer.
Pallas! whose voice the olive rais'd; and thou,
Fam'd youth, inventor of the crooked plough!
Sylvanus! waving high, in triumph borne,
A sapling cypress with its roots uptorn;
Oh come, protectors of the land! descend;
Each God, and Goddess, at my call attend,
Who rear new fruits that earth spontaneous yields,
Or feed with prosperous showers the cultur'd fields.
Thou, Cæsar, chief, where'er thy voice ordain
To fix 'mid gods thy yet unchosen reign.......
Wilt thou o'er cities stretch thy guardian sway,
While earth and all her realms thy nod obey?
The world's vast orb shall own thy genial power,
Giver of fruits, fair sun, and favoring shower;
Before thy altar grateful nations bow,
And with maternal myrtle wreathe thy brow;
O'er boundless ocean shall thy power prevail,
Thee her sole lord the world of waters hail!
Rule where the sea remotest Thulé laves,
While Tethy's dowers thy bride with all her waves.
Wilt thou 'mid Scorpius and the Virgin rise,
And, a new star, illume thy native skies?
Scorpius, e'en now, each shrinking claw confines,
And more than half his heaven to thee resigns.
Where'er thy reign (for not, if hell invite
To wield the sceptre of eternal night,
Let not such lust of dire dominion move
Thee, Cæsar, to resign the realm of Jove :
Though vaunting Greece extol th' Elysian plain,
Whence weeping Ceres wooes her child in vain)
Breathe fav'ring gales, my course propitious guide,
O'er the rude swain's uncertain path preside;
Now, now invok'd, assert thy heavenly birth,
And learn to hear our prayers, a God on earth.
When first young Zephyr melts the mountain snow,
And Spring unbinds the mellow'd mould below,
Press the deep plough, and urge the groaning team
Where the worn shares 'mid opening furrows gleams
Lands, o'er whose soil maturing time has roll'd
Twice summer's heat, and twice the wintry cold,
Profuse of wealth th' insatiate swain repay,
And crown with bursting barns his long delay.
Ere virgin earth first feel th' invading share,
The genius of the place demands thy care:
The culture, clime, the winds, and changeful skies,
And what each region bears, and what denies.
Here golden harvests wave, there vineyards glow,
Fruit bends the bough, or herbs unbidden grow.....
Her saffron Tmolus, Ind her ivory boasts,
Spice wings the gale round Saba's balmy coasts:
The naked Chalybes their iron yield,
The powerful castor scents the Pontic field,
While fam'd Epirus rears th' equestrian breed,
Born for the palm that crowns th' Olympic steed.
In stated regions, from th' eternal Cause,
Such Nature's compact, and unbroken laws;
Such from the time when first Deucalion hurl'd
The stones that peopled the deserted world:
Whence a new race arose upon the earth,
Hard as the stubborn flint that gave them birth.
Come, when new Spring first claims the timely toil, Break with laborious steers the generous soil, And give the sun, through many a summer day, To bake the clod and feed with ripening ray; But in light furrows turn th' unfertile ground, When slow Arcturus wheels his lingering round: There, lest rude weeds should choak the rising grain, And here, scant moisture fail the sandy plain.
Alternate fallows rest th' exhausted earth,
And gradual fit the soil for future birth;
Or sow with golden corn the furrow'd clod,
Where the bean harvest burst the shatter'd pod,
Or the light vetch, and bitter lupine grew,
Bow'd to the gale and rattled as it blew.
Oats and the flaxen harvest burn the ground,
And poppies shedding slumberous dews around.
Yet shall thy lands from these at pleasure rear
Abundant harvests each alternate year,
If rich manure fresh life and nurture yield,
And ashes renovate th' exhausted field.
Thus lands in grateful interchange repose,
And wealth unseen beath the fallow grows.
Much it avails to burn 'mia sterile lands
Light stubble crackling as the flame pands;
Whether the heat long-latent nurture raise,
Or genial salts collect beneath the blaze:
Or where corruption lurk'd 'mid humours crude,
Imprison'd damps before the flame exude :
Whether it force through many an opening vein
Juice to fresh plants that clothe anew the plain,
Or brace the pores that, pervious to the day,
Felt the prone sun's intolerable ray,
To piercing showers th' expanded fissure close,
And the chill north that blisters as it blows.
Th' obdurate glebe with frequent harrow break,
Rous'd to new life each crumbling clod awake,
Plough o'er and o'er, on toil redoubling toil,
With sidelong furrow cross the furrow'd soil,
Command the fields, exert despotic sway,
Pursue thy triumph, and bid earth obey:
So shall the Gods their gifts profusely shower,
And Ceres' smile o'erpay each anxious hour.
Swains! pray for wintry dust, and summer rain; Then smile the verdant mead, and golden plain : More rich the crops on Mysia's fertile fields, And Gargarus wonders at the wealth he yields. Him shall I praise who, o'er the new-sown earth, Crumbles the clods that hide th' entrusted birth,
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