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/32

Nor shalt thou lack clear tokens to descry, 456
In storms, the promise of a clearer sky:
$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$For then the edge of starlight is not blunt,
Nor doth the moon her brother's gold discount,
Nor wisps of wool flit o'er the zenith front.
Then halcyons, loved by Thetis, spread no more
Their wings, to catch the sunshine on the shore.
Foul swine forget to toss their litter train,
The mists hang low, and pillow on the plain:
And posted high, the sunset to salute, 465
The owl renews her long unmeaning hoot.
The kestrel Nisus hovers high in air,
And claims poor Scylla for the purple hair;
Where'er the poor lark darting cleaves the wind,
With rush of wings fierce kestrel sweeps behind;
Where'er fierce kestrel poises him behind, 471
She darting through the light air cleaves the wind.
Then thrice the crows compress their gurgling throats,
Or strain four times to fetch the guttural notes,
And in their high nests, wild with magic joys,
Make leafy stir and softly rustling noise; 476
Such ecstasy, when storm and rain are o'er,
To see their nests and callow brood once more.