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Mr. Cooke's Original Poems

with Imitations and Translations of Several Select Passages of the Antients, In Four Parts: To which are added Proposals For perfecting the English Language

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[Translations from Virgil.]
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


274

[Translations from Virgil.]

A Description of Spring from the second Book of Virgil's Georgics.

Joy to the Groves the vernal Seasons bring,
The Woods receive the Benefits of Spring:
Spring swells, indulgent of the future Birth,
With genial Seeds the gladly teeming Earth:
Then Æther, then th'almighty Father, pours
Into his joyful Bride the fruitful Show'rs;
He blends his mighty Limbs with her, and brings,
For her to cherish, all the Seeds of Things:
Then with a pleasing Smart the Herds are stung;
And by the Birds the nuptial Songs are sung:
Then bud the Trees; and open ly the Plains
To tepid Zephyrs and refreshing Rains:
Beneath new Suns the Blades with Safety rise,
And dare expose themselves to vernal Skys;
Nor dreads the tender Vine the southern Blast,
Nor stormy Clouds which northern Winds o'ercast;

275

But out she thrusts her Shoots, nor fears the Colds,
And all her Leafs to the soft Air unfolds.
Such was the State of Things I must believe,
Such and no other can I well conceive,
When blooming first the infant World was seen;
The Days were such as these, like these serene:
Then was it Spring, Spring was the World all o'er,
And then the Eastern-Winds refus'd to roar,
When first the Beasts began to draw the Light,
And Men, an iron Race, first walk'd upright,
When Woods the Province of the Brutes were giv'n,
And Stars flew upwards to illumine Heav'n.