When rushes in fresh rains autumnal Jove, DIRECTIONS FOR VARIOUS WOODEN IMPLEMENTS. Hew from the wood a mortar of three feet, Three cubits may the pestle's length complete : Seven feet the fittest axle-tree extends; If eight the log, the eighth a mallet lends. Cleave many-curvéd blocks thy wheel to round, And let three spans its utmost orbit bound; Whereon slow-rolling thy suspended wain, Ten spans in breadth, may traverse firm the plain. HOW TO MAKE A PLOUGH. If hill or field supply a holm-oak bough While the strong steers in ridges cleave the plains: Two ploughs provide, on household works intent, PROPER AGE FOR WORKING OXEN AND A PLOUGHMAN. Two males procure: be nine their sum of years: Nor towards his fellows glance a rambling view; PLOUGHING-TIME; BORROWING AND LENDING DISSUADED Mark yearly, when among the clouds on high Rich in his own conceit, he then too late Improve the season, to the plough apply SOWING. RELIGIOUS RITES TO BE DULY OBserved. In spring upturn the glebe: and break again Jove subterrene,' chaste Ceres claim thy vow, A boy should tread thy steps: with rake o'erlay The buried seed, and scare the birds away. PLENTY THE RESULT OF A KIND PROVIDENCE AND GOOD MANAGEMENT. Good is the apt economy of things, While evil management its mischief brings: Thus, if aerial Jovel thy cares befriend, And crown thy tillage with a prosperous end, Shall the rich ear in fulness of its grain Nod on the stalk and bend it to the plain. So shalt thou sweep the spider's films away, That round thy hollow bins lie hid from day; I ween; rejoicing in the foodful stores Obtained at length, and laid within thy doors: For plenteousness shall glad thee through the year Till the white blossoms of the spring appear : Nor thou on others' heaps a gazer be, But others owe their borrowed store to thee. MIDWINTER AND LATE SPRING PLOUGHING; RAINS REMEDY THE LATTER. If, ill-advised, thou turn the genial plains, His wintry tropic when the sun attains; Thou, then, mayst reap, and idle sit between : Mocking thy gripe the meagre stalks are seen: Whilst, little joyful, gather'st thou in bands The corn whose chaffy dust bestrews thy hands. In one scant basket shall thy harvest lie, And few shall pass thee, then, with honoring eye. 1 The subterranean Jove was Pluto, the earth-god, to whom were due the effects of soil; aerial Jove was Jupiter, the air-god, to whom all effects of weather were considered to be due. Ceres was goddess of crops, grain, and flowers. Now thus, now otherwise is Jove's design; O'er the wide earth when men the cuckoo hear GOSSIPING AND IDLENESS DISSUADED FROM. Pass by the brazier's forge where loiterers meet, To gripe thy tumid foot with hand from hunger lean. On that ill hope, while starving with his need. A WINTER STORM FROM THE NORTH DESCRIBED. — SHELTER. Beware the January month: beware He stoops to earth; shrill swells the storm around, In her soft chamber pillowed to repose, THE POLYPUS; WILD ANIMALS IN WINTER; SNOW. Now gnaws the boneless polypus his feet; Starved midst bleak rocks, his desolate retreat : For now no more the sun with gleaming ray Through seas transparent lights him to his prey. O'er the swarth Ethiop rolls his bright career, And slowly gilds the Grecian hemisphere. And now the hornéd and unhornéd kind, Whose lair is in the wood, sore-famished grind Their sounding jaws, and frozen and quaking fly Where oaks the mountain dells imbranch on high: They seek to couch in thickets of the glen, Or lurk deep-sheltered in the rocky den. Like aged men, who, propped on crutches, tread, Tottering with broken strength and stooping head, So move the beasts of earth; and, creeping low, Shun the white flakes and dread the drifting snow. WINTER CLOTHING. I warn thee, now, around thy body cast On a scant warp a woof abundant weave; MORNING SIGNS OF A COLD EVENING RAIN, IN WINTER. Bleak is the morn when blows the north from high; Oft when the dawnlight paints the starry sky, A misty cloud suspended hovers o'er Heaven's blessed earth with fertilizing store Drained from the living streams: aloft in air The whirling winds the buoyant vapor bear, Resolved at eve in rain or gusty cold, As by the north the troubled rack is rolled. Preventing this, the labor of the day Accomplished, homeward bend thy hastening way: Lest the dark cloud, with whelming rush deprest, Drench thy cold limbs, and soak thy dripping vest. WINTER-RAINS. FOOD FOR HOUSE AND BARN. This winter month with prudent caution fear : Severe to flocks, nor less to men severe : Feed thy keen husbandman with larger bread : With half their provender thy steers be fed : Them rest assists: the night's protracted length Recruits their vigor and supplies their strength. This rule observe, while still the various earth Gives every fruit and kindly seedling birth: Still to the toil proportionate the cheer, The day to night, and equalize the year. SPRING; THE SWALLOW; VINE-PRUNING; REAPING; MORN. Anticipate the time: the care be thine An earlier day to prune the shooting vine. SUMMER HEATS; EFFECTS; SHADE AND REFRESHMENT. When the green artichoke ascending flowers, When, in the sultry season's toilsome hours, Perched on a branch, beneath his veiling wings, The loud cicada shrill and frequent sings; Then the plump goat a savory food bestows, The poignant wine in mellowest flavor flows: Wanton the blood then bounds in woman's veins, But weak of man the heat enfeebled reigns. Full on his brain descends the solar flame, Unnerves the languid knees, and all the frame, Exhaustive, dries away : 0, then, be thine To sit in shade of rocks; with Byblian wine,2 And goat's milk, stinted from the kid, to slake Thy thirst, and eat the shepherd's creamy cake : The flesh of new-dropt kids and youngling cows, That, never teeming, cropt the forest browse. With dainty food so saturate thy soul, And drink the wine dark-mantling in the bowl: While in the cool and breezy gloom reclined Thy face is turned to catch the breathing wind; And feel the freshening brook, whose living stream Glides at thy foot with clear and sparkling gleam: Three parts its waters in thy cup should flow, The fourth with brimming wine may mingled glow. 1 The winter solstice, in the time of Hesiod, occurred on the 30th December. The rising of Arcturus took place on the 5th of March. 2 A thin, Thracian wine, not intoxicating. THRESHING; SERVANTS; dog; fodder. When 1 first Orion's beamy strength is born, And now, as I advise, thy hireling swain THE VINTAGE; PRESSING OF GRAPES. THE RUSTIC YEAR COMPLETE. When Sirius and Orion the mid-sky Ascend, and on Arcturus2 looks from high The rosy-fingered morn, the vintage calls: Then bear the gathered grapes within thy walls. Ten days and nights exposed the clusters lay Basked in the lustre of each mellowing day: Let five their circling round successive run, Whilst lie thy frails o'ershaded from the sun : The sixth in vats the gifts of Bacchus press; [ness. Of Bacchus' gladdening earth with store of pleasantBut when beneath the skies on morning's brink The Pleiads, Hyads, and Orion sink ;3 Know then the ploughing and the seed-time near : Thus well-disposed shall glide thy Rustic Year. HESIOD'S "DAYS." ANCIENT SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH THE DAYS OF THE The thirtieth 4 of the moon inspect with care These days obey the all-wise Jove's behest: The golden-sworded god, beheld the morn. 1 About the 12th of July. 2,3 The heliacal rising of Arcturus happened, in Hesiod's time, about the 21st of September. The cosmical setting of the Pleiads occurred in November. 4, 5 The most ancient Greeks, as well as the Orientals, employed lunar months of thirty days. The Greek month was divided into three decades of days; this was copied by the French, during their first republic. The Greek courts of judicature were held in the forenoon, and the judges left the forum in the afternoon. The eighth, nor less the ninth, with favoring skies, Cut on the eighth the goat, and lowing steer, The tenth propitious lends its natal ray To men, to gentle maids the fourteenth day : Tame, too, thy sheep on this auspicious morn, And steers of flexile hoof and wreathéd horn, And labor-patient mules; and mild command Thy sharp-toothed dog with smoothly-flattering hand. The fourth and twenty-fourth no grief should prey Within thy breast, for holy either day. Fourth of the moon lead home thy blooming bride, And be the fittest auguries descried. Beware the fifth, with horror fraught and woe: "Tis said the furies walk their round below, Avenging the dread oath; whose awful birth From discord rose, to scourge the perjured earth. On the smooth threshing-floor, the seventeenth Observant throw the sheaves of sacred corn: [morn, For chamber furniture the timber hew, And blocks for ships with shaping axe subdue. The fourth upon the stocks thy vessel lay, Soon with light keel to skim the watery way. The nineteenth mark among the better days, When past the fervor of the noontide blaze. Harmless the ninth: 't is good to plant the earth, And fortunate each male and female birth. Few know the twenty-ninth, nor heed the rules To broach their casks, and yoke their steers and mules And fleet-hoofed steeds; and on dark ocean's way Launch the oared galley; few will trust the day. Pierce on the fourth thy cask; the fourteenth prize As holy; and when morning paints the skies, The twenty-fourth is best-few this have knownBut worst of days when noon has fainter grown. These are the days of which the careful heed Each human enterprise will favoring speed: Others there are, which intermediate fall, Marked with no auspice and unomened all : And these will some, and those will others praise, But few are versed in mysteries of days. In this a step-mother's stern hate we prove, In that the mildness of a mother's love. O, fortunate the man! O, blest is he Who, skilled in this, fulfils his ministry: He to whose note the auguries are given, No rite transgressed, and void of blame to Heaven! Rural Odes for March. BRYANT'S "MARCH." AN IDYLLIC ODE. THE stormy March is come at last, That through the snowy valley flies. Wild, stormy month! in praise of thee; Yet, though thy winds are loud and bleak, Thou art a welcome month to me. For thou to northern lands again The glad and glorious sun dost bring, And thou hast joined the gentle train And wear'st the gentle name of Spring. And, in thy reign of blast and storm, Smiles many a long, bright, sunny day, When the changed winds are soft and warm, And heaven puts on the blue of May. Then sing aloud the gushing rills And the full springs, from frost set free, That, brightly leaping down the hills, Are just set out to meet the sea. The year's departing beauty hides Of wintry storms the sullen threat; But in thy sternest frown abides A look of kindly promise yet. Thou bring'st the hope of those calm skies, And that soft time of sunny showers, When the wide bloom on earth that lies Seems of a brighter world than ours. BION'S "EVENING STAR," AN IDYLLIC ODE. I love; and thou, bright star of love! shouldst lend |