Gallus
This now, the very latest of my toils,Vouchsafe me, Arethusa! needs must ISing a brief song to Gallus- brief, but yetSuch as Lycoris' self may fitly read.Who would not sing for Gallus? So, when thouBeneath Sicanian billows glidest on,May Doris blend no bitter wave with thine,Begin! The love of Gallus be our theme,And the shrewd pangs he suffered, while, hard by,The flat-nosed she-goats browse the tender brush.We sing not to deaf ears; no word of oursBut the woods echo it. What groves or lawnsHeld you, ye Dryad-maidens, when for love-Love all unworthy of a loss so dear-Gallus lay dying? for neither did the slopesOf Pindus or Parnassus stay you then,No, nor Aonian Aganippe. HimEven the laurels and the tamarisks wept;For him, outstretched beneath a lonely rock,Wept pine-clad Maenalus, and the flinty cragsOf cold Lycaeus. The sheep too stood around-Of us they feel no shame, poet divine;Nor of the flock be thou ashamed: even fairAdonis by the rivers fed his sheep-Came shepherd too, and swine-herd footing slow,And, from the winter-acorns dripping-wetMenalcas. All with one accord exclaim:"From whence this love of thine?" Apollo came;"Gallus, art mad?" he cried, "thy bosom's careAnother love is following."TherewithalSilvanus came, with rural honours crowned;The flowering fennels and tall lilies shookBefore him. Yea, and our own eyes beheldPan, god of Arcady, with blood-red juiceOf the elder-berry, and with vermilion, dyed."Wilt ever make an end?" quoth he, "beholdLove recks not aught of it: his heart no moreWith tears is sated than with streams the grass,Bees with the cytisus, or goats with leaves.""Yet will ye sing, Arcadians, of my woesUpon your mountains," sadly he replied-"Arcadians, that alone have skill to sing.O then how softly would my ashes rest,If of my love, one day, your flutes should tell!And would that I, of your own fellowship,Or dresser of the ripening grape had been,Or guardian of the flock! for surely then,Let Phyllis, or Amyntas, or who else,Bewitch me- what if swart Amyntas be?Dark is the violet, dark the hyacinth-Among the willows, 'neath the limber vine,Reclining would my love have lain with me,Phyllis plucked garlands, or Amyntas sung.Here are cool springs, soft mead and grove, Lycoris;Here might our lives with time have worn away.But me mad love of the stern war-god holdsArmed amid weapons and opposing foes.Whilst thou- Ah! might I but believe it not!-Alone without me, and from home afar,Look'st upon Alpine snows and frozen Rhine.Ah! may the frost not hurt thee, may the sharpAnd jagged ice not wound thy tender feet!I will depart, re-tune the songs I framedIn verse Chalcidian to the oaten reedOf the Sicilian swain. Resolved am IIn the woods, rather, with wild beasts to couch,And bear my doom, and character my loveUpon the tender tree-trunks: they will grow,And you, my love, grow with them. And meanwhileI with the Nymphs will haunt Mount Maenalus,Or hunt the keen wild boar. No frost so coldBut I will hem with hounds thy forest-glades,Parthenius. Even now, methinks, I rangeO'er rocks, through echoing groves, and joy to launchCydonian arrows from a Parthian bow.-As if my madness could find healing thus,Or that god soften at a mortal's grief!Now neither Hamadryads, no, nor songsDelight me more: ye woods, away with you!No pangs of ours can change him; not though weIn the mid-frost should drink of Hebrus' stream,And in wet winters face Sithonian snows,Or, when the bark of the tall elm-tree boleOf drought is dying, should, under Cancer's Sign,In Aethiopian deserts drive our flocks.Love conquers all things; yield we too to love!"
These songs, Pierian Maids, shall it sufficeYour poet to have sung, the while he sat,And of slim mallow wove a basket fine:To Gallus ye will magnify their worth,Gallus, for whom my love grows hour by hour,As the green alder shoots in early Spring.Come, let us rise: the shade is wont to beBaneful to singers; baneful is the shadeCast by the juniper, crops sicken tooIn shade. Now homeward, having fed your fill--Eve's star is rising-go, my she-goats, go.
Words in this poem 30
- vouchsafe v. t.
- To condescend to grant; to concede; to bestow. [Vouch + safe, that is, to vouch or answer for safety.]
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
- shrewd a.
- Inclining to shrew; disposing to curse or scold; hence, vicious; malicious; evil; wicked; mischievous; vexatious; rough; unfair; shrewish. [Originally the p. p. of shrew, v.t.]
- parnassus n.
- A mountain in Greece, sacred to Apollo and the Muses, and famous for a temple of Apollo and for the Castalian spring. Grass of Parnassus. (Bot.) See under Grass, and Parnassia.
- aonian a.
- Pertaining to Aonia, Boeotia, or to the Muses, who were supposed to dwell there. Aonian fount, the fountain of Aganippe, at the foot of Mount Helicon, not far from Thebes, and sacred to the Muses. [From Aonia, a part of Boeotia, in Greece.]
- dripping n.
- A falling in drops, or the sound so made.
- therewithal adv.
- Over and above; besides; moreover. Daniel.
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
- quoth v. t.
- Said; spoke; uttered; -- used only in the first and third persons in the past tenses, and always followed by its nominative, the word or words said being the object; as, quoth I. quoth he. [AS.cweedhan, imp cwæedh, pl. cwædon; akin to OS. queedhan, OHG. quethan, quedan, Icel. kveedha, Goth. qiþan. sq. root22. Cf. Bequeath.]
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- sadly adv.
- Wearily; heavily; firmly.
- dresser n.
- One who dresses; one who put in order or makes ready for use; one who on clothes or ornaments.
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
- chalcidian n.
- One of a tropical family of snakelike lizards (Chalcidæ), having four small or rudimentary legs.
- oaten a.
- Consisting of an oat straw or stem; as, an oaten pipe.
- sicilian a.
- Of or pertaining to Sicily or its inhabitants. Sicilian vespers, the great massacre of the French in Sicily, in the year 1282, on the evening of Easter Monday, at the hour of vespers.
- meanwhile n.
- The intervening time; as, in the meantime (or mean time).
- methinks v.
- It seems to me; I think. See Me. [AS. þyncan to seem, me þynceedh, me þuhte, OE. me thinketh, me thoughte; akin to G. dünken to seem, denken to think, and E. think. See Me, and Think.]
- parthian a.
- Of or pertaining to ancient Parthia, in Asia.
- bole n.
- The trunk or stem of a tree, or that which is like it. [OE. bole, fr. Icel. bolr; akin to Sw. bål, Dan. bul, trunk, stem of a tree, G. bohle a thick plank or board; cf. LG. boll round. Cf. Bulge.]
- pierian a.
- Of or pertaining to Pierides or Muses. [L. Pierius, from Mount Pierus, in Thessaly, sacred to the Muses.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- suffice v. i.
- To be enough, or sufficient; to meet the need (of anything); to be equal to the end proposed; to be adequate. [OE. suffisen, OF. soufire, F. suffire (cf. suffisant, p.pr.), L. sufficere to put under, to substitute, to avail for, to suffice; sub under + facere to make. Se]
- wove
- p. pr. & rare vb. n. of Weave.
- alder a.
- Of all; -- used in composition; as, alderbest, best of all, alderwisest, wisest of all. [From ealra, alra, gen. pl. of AS. eal. The d is excrescent.]
- baneful a.
- Having poisonous qualities; deadly; destructive; injurious; noxious; pernicious.
- sicken v. t.
- To make sick; to disease.
- homeward a.
- Being in the direction of home; as, the homeward way.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Gallus is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Bucolics and Eclogues, Project Gutenberg ebook #230; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Virgil, Gallus, in The Eclogues (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #230, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/virgil-eclogues/gallus.html, id L25460.
Form and metre
Gallus is 97 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 --------------------------AA----B--B------------C--C---------------------------------- toils · i · yet · read · thou · on · thine · theme · by · brush · ours · lawns · love · dear · slopes · then · him · wept · rock · crags · around · divine · fair · sheep · slow · wet · exclaimA · cameA · care · therewithal · crowned · shook · beheldB · juice · dyed · beholdB · more · grass · leaves · woes · replied · sing · rest · tell · fellowship · been · then · else · beC · hyacinth · vine · meC · sung · lycoris · away · holds · foes · not · afar · rhine · sharp · feet · framed · reed · i · couch · love · grow · meanwhile · maenalus · cold · glades · range · launch · bow · thus · grief · songs · you · we · stream · snows · bole · sign · flocks · love
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| This now, the very latest of my toils, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Vouchsafe me, Arethusa! needs must I | 10 | ˘/········ |
| Sing a brief song to Gallus- brief, but yet | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Such as Lycoris' self may fitly read. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Who would not sing for Gallus? So, when thou | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Beneath Sicanian billows glidest on, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| May Doris blend no bitter wave with thine, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Begin! The love of Gallus be our theme, | 10 | ˘/···/˘·/· |
| And the shrewd pangs he suffered, while, hard by, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The flat-nosed she-goats browse the tender brush. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| We sing not to deaf ears; no word of ours | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| But the woods echo it. What groves or lawns | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Held you, ye Dryad-maidens, when for love- | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Love all unworthy of a loss so dear- | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Gallus lay dying? for neither did the slopes | 11 | /˘·/˘·/˘··· |
| Of Pindus or Parnassus stay you then, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| No, nor Aonian Aganippe. Him | 10 | ··˘/˘˘···· |
| Even the laurels and the tamarisks wept; | 10 | /·/˘··/˘˘· |
| For him, outstretched beneath a lonely rock, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Wept pine-clad Maenalus, and the flinty crags | 11 | ········/˘· |
| Of cold Lycaeus. The sheep too stood around- | 10 | ·········· |
| Of us they feel no shame, poet divine; | 10 | ······/˘˘/ |
| Nor of the flock be thou ashamed: even fair | 10 | ······˘//· |
| Adonis by the rivers fed his sheep- | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Came shepherd too, and swine-herd footing slow, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And, from the winter-acorns dripping-wet | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Menalcas. All with one accord exclaim: | 10 | ······˘/˘/ |
| "From whence this love of thine?" Apollo came; | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| "Gallus, art mad?" he cried, "thy bosom's care | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Another love is following."Therewithal | 11 | ˘/˘··/˘···· |
| Silvanus came, with rural honours crowned; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| The flowering fennels and tall lilies shook | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Before him. Yea, and our own eyes beheld | 10 | ·····/··˘/ |
| Pan, god of Arcady, with blood-red juice | 10 | ·········· |
| Of the elder-berry, and with vermilion, dyed. | 12 | ··/˘/˘··˘/˘· |
| "Wilt ever make an end?" quoth he, "behold | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Love recks not aught of it: his heart no more | 10 | ·········· |
| With tears is sated than with streams the grass, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Bees with the cytisus, or goats with leaves." | 10 | ·········· |
| "Yet will ye sing, Arcadians, of my woes | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Upon your mountains," sadly he replied- | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| "Arcadians, that alone have skill to sing. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| O then how softly would my ashes rest, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| If of my love, one day, your flutes should tell! | 10 | ·········· |
| And would that I, of your own fellowship, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Or dresser of the ripening grape had been, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Or guardian of the flock! for surely then, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Let Phyllis, or Amyntas, or who else, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Bewitch me- what if swart Amyntas be? | 10 | ˘/········ |
| Dark is the violet, dark the hyacinth- | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Among the willows, 'neath the limber vine, | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| Reclining would my love have lain with me, | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| Phyllis plucked garlands, or Amyntas sung. | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| Here are cool springs, soft mead and grove, Lycoris; | 11 | ··········· |
| Here might our lives with time have worn away. | 10 | ··/·····˘/ |
| But me mad love of the stern war-god holds | 10 | ·········· |
| Armed amid weapons and opposing foes. | 10 | ·˘//˘·˘/˘· |
| Whilst thou- Ah! might I but believe it not!- | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Alone without me, and from home afar, | 10 | ˘/······˘/ |
| Look'st upon Alpine snows and frozen Rhine. | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| Ah! may the frost not hurt thee, may the sharp | 10 | ·········· |
| And jagged ice not wound thy tender feet! | 10 | ··˘····/˘· |
| I will depart, re-tune the songs I framed | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| In verse Chalcidian to the oaten reed | 11 | ··˘/˘˘··/˘· |
| Of the Sicilian swain. Resolved am I | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/·· |
| In the woods, rather, with wild beasts to couch, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And bear my doom, and character my love | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Upon the tender tree-trunks: they will grow, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And you, my love, grow with them. And meanwhile | 10 | ········/· |
| I with the Nymphs will haunt Mount Maenalus, | 10 | ·········· |
| Or hunt the keen wild boar. No frost so cold | 10 | ·········· |
| But I will hem with hounds thy forest-glades, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Parthenius. Even now, methinks, I range | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| O'er rocks, through echoing groves, and joy to launch | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Cydonian arrows from a Parthian bow.- | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| As if my madness could find healing thus, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Or that god soften at a mortal's grief! | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Now neither Hamadryads, no, nor songs | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Delight me more: ye woods, away with you! | 10 | ˘/····˘/·· |
| No pangs of ours can change him; not though we | 10 | ···/······ |
| In the mid-frost should drink of Hebrus' stream, | 10 | ·········· |
| And in wet winters face Sithonian snows, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Or, when the bark of the tall elm-tree bole | 10 | ·········· |
| Of drought is dying, should, under Cancer's Sign, | 11 | ···/˘···/˘· |
| In Aethiopian deserts drive our flocks. | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| Love conquers all things; yield we too to love!" | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| These songs, Pierian Maids, shall it suffice | 11 | ··˘/˘˘···˘/ |
| Your poet to have sung, the while he sat, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And of slim mallow wove a basket fine: | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| To Gallus ye will magnify their worth, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Gallus, for whom my love grows hour by hour, | 11 | /˘·····/·/˘ |
| As the green alder shoots in early Spring. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Come, let us rise: the shade is wont to be | 10 | ·········· |
| Baneful to singers; baneful is the shade | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| Cast by the juniper, crops sicken too | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| In shade. Now homeward, having fed your fill-- | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Eve's star is rising-go, my she-goats, go. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.