Cecil Day Lewis is an excellent translator who does justice to the Virgil’s entrancing and vivid imagery of nature and mythological figures. Book 4 with the bees and the river prophet had me entirely under its spell.

It’s Vergilius, what do you want me to say? I’d give him six out of five stars if I could.

Virgil's Eclogues and Georgics precede his more well-known work The Aeneid and far surpass it it quality. The ten pastoral poems and the four books of agricultural prose that constitute this work show the poet in his true element and are what gained him the initial popularity. Stephen Harris seems to indicate the Eclogues and Georgics were well-received by the Romans of the day who may have been nostalgic for the agrarian lifestyle romanticized in these works of poetry. This initial popularity lead to writing the later work, which he (like me) felt to be garbage. On his deathbed he ordered the Aeneid to be destroyed, which was unfortunately prevented by emperor Octavian (I'd personally question his taste not only on this but also on taking severe offense to Ovid's classic work Metamorphoses).

This translation is a little archaic, following the King James Bible style and its use of "Thees" and "Thous", but that didn't seem to get in the way. This this isn't a work of theology and doesn't hold the expectation for the reader to introspectively absorb and ponder esoteric principles; this is a work of poetry and as such is concerned with using rhythm and lyric to put the reader in a mood to appreciate beauty. And since the subject matter itself is simple in comparison to the layers of a spiritual concept, it's much easier to see the world through the poet's eyes.

The Eclogues paint a picture of shepherds as lighthearted romantics who pass the time composing songs and recapitulating the simple issues of their herds. A few eclogues are structured as a conversation and some are narrated. Though some of it went over my head it was still beautiful verse and the type of flowery prose that's hard to regret reading.

In the Georgics, Virgil created a brilliant blend of myth, poetic praise of the many fruits of the land, and practical insight and how-to's for farmers. It's impressive how he can start by praising Bacchus, then citing examples of the fruits of the vine for which to rejoice, finishing then with tips on how to know whether the soil is better fit for planting vines or for growing corn or grain, and all this laid out in a smooth poetic rhythm. The first book in Georgics sings the praises of Ceres (the Roman name for Demeter) and the fruits of her harvest (though Minerva's olives and a few other deities related to staple crops are cited). The second book is centered on Bacchus (Dionysus) and the fruits of the vine. The third book wasn't specifically centered on a crop or fruit, although it did focus somewhat on tending to the livestock. The fourth book is centered on honey, beekeeping and the admiration a good Roman citizen should have for the bee colony. He points out that the bee colony far outlasts the lives of the drones and draws many parallels meant to politically inspire his fellow Romans. He finishes the fourth book with a somewhat unrelated but excellent recap of the tale of Orpheus.

I wasn't expecting to like this work based on my last experience reading Virgil, but it is so unique and well-executed that I couldn't help falling in love with it. Equally heart-warming was the knowledge that the citizens of a culture two-thousand years removed from my own can similarly find themselves exhausted by the strain of urban life and need a good dose of a highly imaginative and romanticized agrarian daydream.

I didn’t understand most of it

I love used book sales. If you’ve ever gone ‘garage sale-ing’, then you’re probably familiar with the types of pushy scavengers that you might meet at a used book sale. You’d almost think Dickens had these bibliophiles in mind for his caricature of Scrooge in the opening chapter of A Christmas Carol: “…a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, …secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.” Solitary, that is, until they catch the scent of a musty book in the air that could be had for a buck. Watching the doors open for a used book sale can cause you to lose faith in humanity. But as I said, I’m a used-book scavenger myself, and I only hope that my love for life ultimately outstrips my lust for books.

So what does this have to do with Virgil? Well, I found a book containing three of Virgil’s works at the last sale (with over a million books!…humina, humina), and I tucked it away on a bookshelf for a rainy day. Well my friends, that day came a week ago. Imagine, if you will, me deciding on a whim that I REALLY wanted to read some of Virgil, forgetting that I had the book on hand, scouring my shelves for the next book to read, and stumbling upon this little ruby. I AM! I actually wanted to read only the Eclogues and Georgics, not the more famous Aeneid, mostly because I’ve heard that the former were much more poetic than the adventurous latter. My plan is to read the whole of Dante’s Divine Comedy soon (I’ve only read the Inferno up till now), and for some reason it has always intrigued me that Dante, one of the most celebrated authors of all time, chose Virgil as his guide through Hades.

The Eclogues are pastoral (rural) poems and songs written in the tradition of a shepherd sing-off. Speakers take turns trying to ‘one-up’ their opponents in a friendly game of lyrical improvisation (freestyle rap battle!!) about the country life. I’m sure in the day they had their Eminems and Jay-Z’s, but this is hardly anything a 21st century man can relate to. Between the references to antiquated cultural traditions and the constant allusion to Roman mythology, I wasn’t able to make much of it. Unfortunately you’ll need a history/mythology buff to help break down the ‘thick accent’. It’s almost lost to all but a few super-conditioned readers.

The Georgics, on the other hand, were a different story altogether. I wouldn’t quite give it the accolade that was offered in the introduction of the Modern Library version: “…perhaps the most perfect work of Virgil…No one who reads the magnificent passage in the second book (lines 136-137) can fail to be thrilled with its patriotic fervor.” I beg to differ with you Charles L. Durham (whoever you are), I failed to be thrilled by almost all of it. Don’t get me wrong, I do sense the Shakespearean brilliance and perpetual poetry of every line crafted with the utmost care to extract the sweet wine of beauty and truth out of every word, but I must be a few millennia off. Doesn’t hit me quite the way Shakespeare does, I’m sure because I speak the same language and I’m in the same general epoch as the Man. There were a couple sublime verses that I could detect, however, like:

“The grasses dare in safety to trust themselves to spring rain.”
“Neither might things so delicate endure this their toil, except such space of calm passed between the cold and the heat, and earth were cradled by an indulgent sky.”
“Lost to fame, let me love stream and woodland.”
“But we have crossed a boundless breadth of plain, and now is time to loosen the necks of our steaming horses.”
Overall, I considered this worth my time. If nothing else, it’s a piece of history and some of its poetry remains translucent for us. I hope to read the Aeneid sometime in the future, and even sooner I plan on picking up The Divine Comedy to be reunited with this Dante’s dubious choice of a guide.

After reading some of the reviews I'm convinced that I don't have a literate opinion. This reading was a second time for me. The first I read was a different translation back in the 1980's and I had trouble seeing the words on the pages. The same thing happened again with this edition. I have reading glasses, but the sentences kept fading on the page. This phenomena has never happened with any other book and I've read 1,000 books to date. I can only say that the title is haunted and some god or goddess who does not want me to read it cursed the title for me. I did it anyway. It was beautiful. Pagan and decadent I found words of wise and uninhibited lust in the Eclogues and true husbandry in Georgics. As a layman of Latin I found the names at times unrecognizable but the translation I read was readable. I'll chalk my vision problem up to the words being so bright and the source of intense condensed thought from the origins of the Western Civilization. You can't see the sun without a devise that prohibits being blinded by it. Overall getting a glimpse of Roman bucolic writing was a nice experience.

I enjoyed the Eclogues, particularly: I, II, III & VII.

The Georgics were not to my taste, although I suspect this may partly be due to the translation.

This wasn't the edition I read; mine was in Latin. I had to translate the Eclogues into English for a course. Maybe they would have been better had the class not met at 8 a.m.

His first poetic collection, the Bucolics, features shepherds who talk, exchanging their ideas and sharing their feelings. This feature allows Virgil to sing about his love for nature, a source of nostalgia and fulfillment. But it is also an opportunity for him to express his dismay at the civil unrest of the time.
The Georgics retain the country decor. Unlike the Bucolics collection, this poem has an academic aspect. The author describes the works of the earth by releasing their techniques and, especially, by extolling their unknown charms.
By giving an example to the citizens of country life, in which he praises simplicity and wholesomeness, Virgil brings in some way its contribution to the politics of the time!
But he does not lower himself to a kind of simplistic propaganda.
The Georgics are like hymns to essential values, a great song about the beauty and grandeur of nature.

Virgil is interesting, to say the least. His apparent obsession with hard work and the country probably arose from his move from the countryside to Rome during Octavian's rise to power. I don't often enjoy poetry, but this time it was tolerable, so I gave it three stars. His reference to a boy savior born of a virgin is mysterious, but most likely refers to Octavian rather than Christ, as Augustine thought. Overall, it's a good read and insightful.

Poetry is cool. I didn't know that Virgil wrote tragic poems about Shepherds before reading this. I thought he was just into boring history. But apparently not.

It is a testament to Vergil's abilities that his work is entrancing even here, in this decidedly lackluster translation (rhyming ditties with titties, really, Day-Lewis). At least Lyne--responsible for the introduction and notes--seems to concur with me on this, and criticises the translation for its flaws (and outright fabrications) at several points.