Menalcas
O every wayUnhappy sheep, unhappy flock! while heStill courts Neaera, fearing lest her choiceShould fall on me, this hireling shepherd hereWrings hourly twice their udders, from the flockFilching the life-juice, from the lambs their milk.
Hold! not so ready with your jeers at men!We know who once, and in what shrine with you-The he-goats looked aside- the light nymphs laughed-
Ay, then, I warrant, when they saw me slashMicon's young vines and trees with spiteful hook.
Or here by these old beeches, when you brokeThe bow and arrows of Damon; for you chafedWhen first you saw them given to the boy,Cross-grained Menalcas, ay, and had you notDone him some mischief, would have chafed to death.
With thieves so daring, what can masters do?Did I not see you, rogue, in ambush lieFor Damon's goat, while loud Lycisca barked?And when I cried, "Where is he off to now?Gather your flock together, Tityrus,"You hid behind the sedges.
Words in this poem
- hireling n.
- One who is hired, or who serves for wages; esp., one whose motive and interest in serving another are wholly gainful; a mercenary. [AS. h. See Hire, n., and -ling.]
- hourly a.
- Happening or done every hour; occurring hour by hour; frequent; often repeated; renewed hour by hour; continual.
- slash v. t.
- To cut by striking violently and at random; to cut in long slits. [OE. slaschen, of uncertain origin; cf. OF. esclachier to break, esclechier, esclichier, to break, and E. slate, slice, slit, v. t.]
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Menalcas 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, Menalcas, in The Eclogues (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #230, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/virgil-eclogues/menalcas.html, id L25449.
Form and metre
Menalcas is 22 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O every way | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| Unhappy sheep, unhappy flock! while he | 10 | ˘/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Still courts Neaera, fearing lest her choice | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Should fall on me, this hireling shepherd here | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Wrings hourly twice their udders, from the flock | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Filching the life-juice, from the lambs their milk. | 10 | /˘········ |
| Hold! not so ready with your jeers at men! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| We know who once, and in what shrine with you- | 10 | ·········· |
| The he-goats looked aside- the light nymphs laughed- | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Ay, then, I warrant, when they saw me slash | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Micon's young vines and trees with spiteful hook. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Or here by these old beeches, when you broke | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The bow and arrows of Damon; for you chafed | 11 | ···/˘·/˘··· |
| When first you saw them given to the boy, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Cross-grained Menalcas, ay, and had you not | 10 | ·········· |
| Done him some mischief, would have chafed to death. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| With thieves so daring, what can masters do? | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Did I not see you, rogue, in ambush lie | 10 | ·······/·· |
| For Damon's goat, while loud Lycisca barked? | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And when I cried, "Where is he off to now? | 10 | ·········· |
| Gather your flock together, Tityrus," | 10 | /˘··˘/˘··· |
| You hid behind the sedges. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
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.