FRUIT OF OLD.
9
Some drag the dripping trawl along the sea. 165
Then temper'd steel and grating saws ensued,
(With wedges first they clove the splintering wood,)
Then came the various arts: oh, grand success
Of desperate toil and resolute distress!
But Ceres first ordain'd, for human weal, 170
To turn the sod with new-invented steel;
When acorns and tree-strawberries fail'd the wood,
And now Dodona grudged her ancient food.
Nor long ere trouble fell upon the grain,
That knavish rust should gnaw the stalk in twain,
And thistles, lazy rufflers, choke the seeds; 176
The crops die off, a ragged wood succeeds,
Caltrops and burs, and o'er the harvest gay,
The gloomy darnel and the wild oats sway.
And so, unless with constant harrows plied 180
You chop the soil, and scare the birds beside,
And check with pruning-hook the bowering shade,
And call with many a vow the shower's aid,
Great ricks you shall behold of other folk,
But make your dinner from the shaken oak. 185
Then temper'd steel and grating saws ensued,
(With wedges first they clove the splintering wood,)
Then came the various arts: oh, grand success
Of desperate toil and resolute distress!
But Ceres first ordain'd, for human weal, 170
To turn the sod with new-invented steel;
When acorns and tree-strawberries fail'd the wood,
And now Dodona grudged her ancient food.
Nor long ere trouble fell upon the grain,
That knavish rust should gnaw the stalk in twain,
And thistles, lazy rufflers, choke the seeds; 176
The crops die off, a ragged wood succeeds,
Caltrops and burs, and o'er the harvest gay,
The gloomy darnel and the wild oats sway.
And so, unless with constant harrows plied 180
You chop the soil, and scare the birds beside,
And check with pruning-hook the bowering shade,
And call with many a vow the shower's aid,
Great ricks you shall behold of other folk,
But make your dinner from the shaken oak. 185
