The Georgics is a didactic poem in four books by the Roman poet Virgil. It treats farming, vines, livestock, and bees while celebrating labor, nature, and rural peace. It is worth listening to for its vivid verse and reflections on humanity's relationship with the land.
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Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
29 BC THE GEORGICS by Virgil GEORGIC I GEORGIC II GEORGIC III GEORGIC IV GEORGIC I What makes the cornfield smile; beneath what star Maecenas, it is meet to turn the sod Or marry elm with vine; how tend the steer; What pains for cattle-keeping, or what proof Of patient trial serves for thrifty bees;- Such are my themes. O universal lights Most glorious! ye that lead the gliding year Along the sky, Liber and Ceres mild, If by your bounty holpen earth once changed Chaonian acorn for the plump wheat-ear, And mingled with the grape, your new-found gift, The draughts of Achelous; and ye Fauns To rustics ever kind, come foot it, Fauns And Dryad-maids together; your gifts I sing. And thou, for whose delight the war-horse first Sprang from earth's womb at thy great trident's stroke, Neptune; and haunter of the groves, for whom Three hundred snow-white heifers browse the brakes,
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