Virgil's First Eclogue
Tityrus credits a young benefactor in Rome, whom he honors as a god, with allowing him to continue tending his cattle. Meliboeus drives his goats away from his homeland and laments losing his cultivated fields amid discord. As evening falls, Tityrus offers him food and a place to rest for the night.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Pastoral Poetry, Dialogue · 1,307 words
First lines
MELIBOEUS. / Tityrus, thou in the shade of a spreading beech-tree reclining, / Meditatest, with slender pipe, the Muse of the woodlands. / We our country's bounds and pleasant pastures relinquish, / We our country fly; thou, Tityrus, stretched in the shadow, / Teachest the woods to resound with the name of the fair Amaryllis.
TITYRUS. / O Meliboeus, a god for us this leisure created, / For he will be unto me a god forever; his altar / Oftentimes shall imbue a tender lamb from our sheepfolds. / He, my heifers to wander at large, and myself, as thou seest, / On my rustic reed to play what I will, hath permitted.
Genres
- Pastoral Poetry — Two shepherds discuss their contrasting fortunes in verse amid grazing flocks, familiar rivers, shaded pastures, and rural song.
- Dialogue — Alternating speeches by Meliboeus and Tityrus recount a visit to Rome, permission to continue farming, and departure from the homeland.
Tags
exile · dispossession · shepherds · rural life · patronage · hospitality
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Virgil's First Eclogue is listed on Textopian as a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Pastoral Poetry, Dialogue
- Length: 1,307 words
- Structure: 1 section, 12 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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