Page:The Farm and Fruit of Old a translation in verse of the 1st and 2nd Georgics of Virgil, by a market-gardener (1862).djvu/23

Nor grudge the millet's annual demand;
While Taurus with his gilt horns opes the year,
And rising backward, strikes the Dog with fear.
But if for sturdy wheat you till the plain, 254
And take your stand on nothing else but grain,
Let morning Pleiads sink on heaven's low verge,
And bright the Cretan diadem emerge,
Or ere you trust the furrows, and invest
The season's hope in earth's reluctant breast.
Too many will not wait till Maia set, 260
Then empty husks elude the harvest debt.
And wilt thou sow the vetch, and kidney-bean,
Nor proudly hold Pelusian leek too mean?
Boötes setting will direct thee well,
Begin, and cease not till the frosts compel. 265
By twelve bright stars, apportioning its girth,
The golden sun administers the earth.
Five zones enclasp the heavens, the central one
Is scorch'd with fire, and red with blazing sun.
Upon the right and left, the utmost twain 270
Are block'd with icebergs blue and murky rain.
Between them and the midst, by gracious plan,
Two zones have been vouchsafed to helpless man.
Along them, where the ecliptic causeway lies,