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/34

But if (her surest pledge), when four days old,
She pace the sky with horns of vivid gold, 500
The following day, and days thereafter born,
A month complete, both wind and wet shall scorn;
While rescued sailors pay their full desert
To Glaucus, Panope, and Melicert.
The sun as well your beacon-light shall be, 505
Both rising and when plunging in the sea;
Unerring signs attend the sun's career,
At early morn, and when the stars appear.
If he hath blurr'd and dappled the young dawn,
Bank'd in a cloud and half his disk withdrawn,
Fear showers and wild south-easters from the deep, 511
Ill-boding winds to fruit, and corn, and sheep.
Or when, at day-break, through clouds composite,
Diverging rays present a fan of light;
Or when Aurora, from Tithonus' side, 515
Forsakes her saffron couch, a pallid bride,—
Their leafy shield the mellow grapes shall fail,
So rattles on the roof the pelting hail.
And even more thou mayest learn thereby,
When sinks the sun below the traversed sky. 520
For oft we see, upon his very face,