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/55

$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$Make no assault upon the whipster spray,^[1]
Nor strip the leaders from their props away,
(The vine so loves the ground that all would stray.).
Nor wound with blunted knife the tender shoot,
Nor plant wild olive trunks amid your fruit. 361
For oft the careless shepherd drops a spark,
Which lies perdu beneath the oily bark,
It gnaws the wood, and, flickering as it soars
High up the foliage, to the welkin roars, 365
Then follows through the limbs, with victor tread,
And rides enthroned above the towering head,
And wraps the grove in flames, and tosses high
A cloud of pitchy darkness to the sky:
Especially if lowering tempest break, 370
And gusts in volleys sweep the blazing flake.
Where this hath been, no more the vines can shoot,
No pruning give new vigour to the root,
Like verdure never more shall clothe the ground,
But olives wild with bitter leaves abound. 375

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1. I venture here to differ widely from the received interpretation, and for many reasons,—a false and obscure explanation is due, I believe, to a misapprehension of Pliny's.—M. G.