Virgil



Virgil is one of the greatest poets to have ever come out of the Roman times, being upheld as one of the most skilled poets of that time period. He created some of the greatest stories to date, and his work such as The //Aeneid// are still looked upon as one of the great epics to date. All of Rome greatly admired Virgil, and even then he was hailed as one of the greatest poets of their time. He wrote stories for mature audiences as he wrote about serious topics, and wrote mostly lengthy stories and even epics. Virgil also had very large cultural implications on Rome and even gave a look into the Roman period for present day historians. Scholars have all noticed Virgil and his references to Roman religion, for example in this quote: “ Virgil stresses these gods in Book II of the //Aeneid//” (Roman Culture). Virgil’s stories and epic give clues as to how the society functioned in Rome, and even influenced the culture a bit by exposing different people to different ideas, which was one of the main goals of the society of Rome. Virgil also has influenced many different poets throughout history, the most notable being Dante Alighieri. Dante wrote his story, The Divine Comedy, so influenced by Virgil that he even used Virgil as a character to guide Dante through the pits of hell. Virgil’s influence expands just beyond his original main audience of adult Romans, and has influenced countless other writers and stories.

“Roman Culture and the Aeneid”. //GVSU Faculty//. Grand Valley State University. Web. 12 May 2013

=Ecologue I=

Meliboeus. You, Tityrus, 'neath a broad beech-canopy Reclining, on the slender oat rehearse Your silvan ditties: I from my sweet fields, And home's familiar bounds, even now depart. Exiled from home am I; while, Tityrus, you Sit careless in the shade, and, at your call, 'Fair Amaryllis' bid the woods resound.

Tityrus. O Meliboeus, 'twas a god vouchsafed Deem ever, and from my folds a tender lamb Oft with its life-blood shall his altar stain. His gift it is that, as your eyes may see, My kine may roam at large, and I myself Play on my shepherd's pipe what songs I will.
 * This ease to us, for him a god will I **
 * (//Metaphor: Comparing two things without like or as, comparing himself to a God)// **

Meliboeus. I grudge you not the boon, but marvel more, Such wide confusion fills the country-side. See, sick at heart I drive my she-goats on, And this one, O my Tityrus, scarce can lead: For 'mid the hazel-thicket here but now She dropped her new-yeaned twins on the bare flint, Hope of the flock- an ill, I mind me well, Which many a time, but for my blinded sense, The thunder-stricken oak foretold, oft too From hollow trunk the raven's ominous cry. But who this god of yours? Come, Tityrus, tell.

Tityrus. The city, Meliboeus, they call Rome, I, simpleton, deemed like this town of ours, Whereto we shepherds oft are wont to drive The younglings of the flock: so too I knew **Whelps to resemble dogs, and kids their dams,** **//(Metaphor: Comparing two unlike things without like or as, comparing the whelps to barks and the kids to dams)//** Comparing small with great; but this as far Above all other cities rears her head As cypress above pliant osier towers.

Meliboeus. And what so potent cause took you to Rome?

Tityrus. Freedom, which, though belated, cast at length Her eyes upon the sluggard, when my beard 'Gan whiter fall beneath the barber's blade- Cast eyes, I say, and, though long tarrying, came, Now when, from Galatea's yoke released, I serve but Amaryllis: for I will own, While Galatea reigned over me, I had No hope of freedom, and no thought to save. Though many a victim from my folds went forth, Or rich cheese pressed for the unthankful town, Never with laden hands returned I home.

Meliboeus. I used to wonder, Amaryllis, why You cried to heaven so sadly, and for whom You left the apples hanging on the trees; 'Twas Tityrus was away. Why, Tityrus, The very pines, the very water-springs, The very vineyards, cried aloud for you.

Tityrus. What could I do? how else from bonds be freed, Or otherwhere find gods so nigh to aid? There, Meliboeus, I saw that youth to whom Yearly for twice six days my altars smoke. There instant answer gave he to my suit, 'Feed, as before, your kine, boys, rear your bulls.'

Meliboeus. So in old age, you happy man, your fields Will still be yours, and ample for your need! Though, with bare stones o'erspread, the pastures all Be choked with rushy mire, your ewes with young By no strange fodder will be tried, nor hurt Through taint contagious of a neighbouring flock. Happy old man, who 'mid familiar streams //**(Personification: Giving inanimate objects human characteristics, saying the springs will court the shade)**// Here, as of old, your neighbour's bordering hedge, That feasts with willow-flower the Hybla bees, Shall oft with gentle murmur lull to sleep, While the leaf-dresser beneath some tall rock Uplifts his song, nor cease their cooings hoarse The wood-pigeons that are your heart's delight, Nor doves their moaning in the elm-tree top.
 * And hallowed springs, will court the cooling shade! **

Tityrus. Sooner shall light stags, therefore, feed in air, The seas their fish leave naked on the strand, Germans and Parthians shift their natural bounds, And these the Arar, those the Tigris drink, Than from my heart his face and memory fade.

Meliboeus. But we far hence, to burning Libya some, Some to the Scythian steppes, or thy swift flood, Cretan Oaxes, now must wend our way, Or Britain, from the whole world sundered far. Ah! shall I ever in aftertime behold My native bounds- see many a harvest hence With ravished eyes the lowly turf-roofed cot Where I was king? These fallows, trimmed so fair, Some brutal soldier will possess these fields An alien master. Ah! to what a pass Has civil discord brought our hapless folk! For such as these, then, were our furrows sown! Now, Meliboeus, graft your pears, now set Your vines in order! Go, once happy flock, My she-goats, go. Never again shall I, Stretched in green cave, behold you from afar Hang from the bushy rock; my songs are sung; Never again will you, with me to tend On clover-flower, or bitter willows, browse.

Tityrus. Yet here, this night, you might repose with me, On green leaves pillowed: apples ripe have I, Soft chestnuts, and of curdled milk enow. And, see, the farm-roof chimneys smoke afar, And from the hills the shadows lengthening fall!

=Song #1: Happiness Is a Warm Gun=



She's not a girl who misses much Do-do-do-do-do, oh yeah

She's well acquainted Like a lizard on a window pane
 * With the touch of a velvet hand**
 * //(Personification, giving inanimate objects human characteristics, velvet does not have hands)//**

Man in the crowd With the multicoloured mirrors On his hobnail boots

Lying with his eyes While his hands are busy Working overtime

The soap impression of his wife Which he ate and donated to the National Trust

I need a fix cause I'm going down Down to the bits that I've left up town I need a fix cause I'm going down

Mother Superior jumped the gun Mother Superior jumped the gun Mother Superior jumped the gun

(BIS)

( bang bang shoot shoot ) Happiness is a warm gun, yes it is (bang bang shoot shoot)
 * Happiness is a warm gun**
 * //(Metaphor, comparing two unlike things without like or as, comparing happiness to a warm gun)//**

When I hold you in my arms (oh yes) When I feel my finger on your trigger (oh yes) I know nobody can do me no harm

Because Happiness is a warm gun -Yes it is. Happiness is a warm, yes it is... Gun! Well don't ya know that happiness is a warm gun, momma? (yeah)  //**The words/lyrics in this song/poem are both written as an exchange of words between two people.**//
 * happiness is a warm gun, momma**
 * //(Metaphor, comparing two unlike things without like or as, same as above)//**

= Eclogue IV =

Muses of Sicily, essay we now A somewhat loftier task! Not all men love Coppice or lowly tamarisk: sing we woods, Woods worthy of a Consul let them be. Now the last age by Cumae's Sibyl sung Has come and gone, and the majestic roll Of circling centuries begins anew: Justice returns, returns old Saturn's reign, With a new breed of men sent down from heaven. Only do thou, at the boy's birth in whom Befriend him, chaste Lucina; 'tis thine own Apollo reigns. And in thy consulate, This glorious age, O Pollio, shall begin, And the months enter on their mighty march. Under thy guidance, whatso tracks remain Of our old wickedness, once done away, He shall receive the life of gods, and see Heroes with gods commingling, and himself Be seen of them, and with his father's worth Reign o'er a world at peace. For thee, O boy, First shall the earth, untilled, pour freely forth Her childish gifts, the gadding ivy-spray With foxglove and Egyptian bean-flower mixed, And laughing-eyed acanthus. Of themselves, Untended, will the she-goats then bring home Their udders swollen with milk, while flocks afield Shall of the monstrous lion have no fear. Thy very cradle shall pour forth for thee Caressing flowers. The serpent too shall die, Die shall the treacherous poison-plant, and far And wide Assyrian spices spring. But soon As thou hast skill to read of heroes' fame, And of thy father's deeds, and inly learn What virtue is, the plain by slow degrees With waving corn-crops shall to golden grow, From the wild briar shall hang the blushing grape, And stubborn oaks sweat honey-dew. Nathless Yet shall there lurk within of ancient wrong Some traces, bidding tempt the deep with ships, Gird towns with walls, with furrows cleave the earth. Therewith a second Tiphys shall there be, Her hero-freight a second Argo bear; New wars too shall arise, and once again Some great Achilles to some Troy be sent. Then, when the mellowing years have made thee man, No more shall mariner sail, nor pine-tree bark Ply traffic on the sea, but every land Shall all things bear alike: the glebe no more Shall feel the harrow's grip, nor vine the hook; The sturdy ploughman shall loose yoke from steer, But in the meadows shall the ram himself, Now with soft flush of purple, now with tint Of yellow saffron, teach his fleece to shine. While clothed in natural scarlet graze the lambs. 'Such still, such ages weave ye, as ye run,' Sang to their spindles the consenting Fates By Destiny's unalterable decree. Assume thy greatness, for the time draws nigh, Dear child of gods, great progeny of Jove! See how it totters- the world's orbed might, Earth, and wide ocean, and the vault profound, All, see, enraptured of the coming time! Ah! might such length of days to me be given, And breath suffice me to rehearse thy deeds, Nor Thracian Orpheus should out-sing me then, Nor Linus, though his mother this, and that His sire should aid- Orpheus Calliope, And Linus fair Apollo. Nay, though Pan, With Arcady for judge, my claim contest, With Arcady for judge great Pan himself Should own him foiled, and from the field retire. Begin to greet thy mother with a smile, O baby-boy! ten months of weariness For thee she bore: O baby-boy, begin! For him, on whom his parents have not smiled, Gods deem not worthy of their board or bed.
 * The iron shall cease, the golden race arise, **
 * //(Personification: Giving inanimate objects human characteristics, it is saying that a race can rise)// **
 * Shall free the earth from never-ceasing fear. **
 * //(Hyperbole: An over-exaggeration, saying that the world was eternally full of fear)// **
 * Nor wool with varying colours learn to lie; **
 * //(Personification: Giving inanimate objects human characteristics, saying that the colours can be untruthful)// **

=Song #2: Life is a Highway=



Life's like a road that you travel on There's one day here and the next day gone Sometimes you bend, sometimes you stand Sometimes you turn your back to the wind There's a world outside every darkened door **Where blues won't haunt you anymore** **//(Personification: Giving nonhuman things human characteristics, saying that the blues are actually creeping on someone)//** For the brave are free and lovers soar Come ride with me to the distant shore We won't hesitate To break down the garden gate There's not much time left today, yeah Life is a highway, I wanna ride it All night long If you're going my way, I wanna drive it <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">All night long <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">Through all these cities and all these towns <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">**It's in my blood and it's all around** <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">**//(Hyperbole: An over-exaggeration, saying that the need to travel actually is so important it's the blood keeping him alive)//** <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">I love you now like I loved you then <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">This is the road and these are the hands <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">From Mozambique to those Memphis nights <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">The Khyber Pass to Vancouver's lights <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">They knock me down and back up again <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">**You're in my blood, I'm not a lonely man** <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">**//(Hyperbole: An over-exaggeration, saying that this person is always with him like the blood in his vains)//** <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">There's no load I can't hold <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">The road's so rough this I know <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">I'll be there when the light comes in <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">Just tell 'em we're survivors <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">Life is a highway, I wanna ride it <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">All night long <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">If your going my way, I wanna drive it <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">All night long <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, yeah <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">Life is a highway, I wanna ride it <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">All night long (mmmm yeah) <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">If your going my way, I wanna drive it <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">All night long <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">There was a distance between you and I <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">(between you and I) <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">A misunderstanding once <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">But now, we look it in the eye <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">Ooooo...Yeah gimme some mowah! <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">There ain't no load that I can't hold <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">The road's so rough this I know <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">I'll be there when the light comes in <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">Just tell 'em we're survivors <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">Life is a highway, I wanna ride it <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">All night long (all night long, yeah hey) <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">If your going my way, I wanna drive it <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">All night long <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">Life is a highway, I wanna ride it <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">All night long <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">If your going my way, I wanna drive it <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">All night long <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">Life is a highway, I wanna ride it <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">All night long <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">If your going my way, I wanna drive it <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">All night long //**Both the song and the poem are declarations of sorts, and they also deal with accomplishing a goal despite the odds, in the case of the song the need to be stationary, but still traveling anyway)**//

= Eclogue VI =

First my Thalia stooped in sportive mood To Syracusan strains, nor blushed within The woods to house her. When I sought to tell Of battles and of kings, the Cynthian god Plucked at mine ear and warned me: 'Tityrus, Beseems a shepherd-wight to feed fat sheep, For lack there will not who would laud thy deeds, And treat of dolorous wars- will rather tune To the slim oaten reed my silvan lay. I sing but as vouchsafed me; yet even this If, if but one with ravished eyes should read, Of thee, O Varus, shall our tamarisks And all the woodland ring; nor can there be A page more dear to Phoebus, than the page Where, foremost writ, the name of Varus stands. Speed ye, Pierian Maids! Within a cave Young Chromis and Mnasyllos chanced to see Silenus sleeping, flushed, as was his wont, With wine of yesterday. Not far aloof, Slipped from his head, the garlands lay, and there By its worn handle hung a ponderous cup. Approaching- for the old man many a time Had balked them both of a long hoped-for song- Garlands to fetters turned, they bind him fast. Then Aegle, fairest of the Naiad-band, Aegle came up to the half-frightened boys, Came, and, as now with open eyes he lay, Both brow and temples. Laughing at their guile, And crying, 'Why tie the fetters? loose me, boys; Enough for you to think you had the power; Now list the songs you wish for- songs for you, Another meed for her' -forthwith began. Then might you see the wild things of the wood, With Fauns in sportive frolic beat the time, And stubborn oaks their branchy summits bow. Not Phoebus doth the rude Parnassian crag So ravish, nor Orpheus so entrance the heights Of Rhodope or Ismarus: for he sang How through the mighty void the seeds were driven Of earth, air, ocean, and of liquid fire, How all that is from these beginnings grew, And the young world itself took solid shape, Then 'gan its crust to harden, and in the deep Shut Nereus off, and mould the forms of things Little by little; and how the earth amazed Beheld the new sun shining, and the showers Fall, as the clouds soared higher, what time the woods 'Gan first to rise, and living things to roam Scattered among the hills that knew them not. Then sang he of the stones by Pyrrha cast, Of Saturn's reign, and of Prometheus' theft, And the Caucasian birds, and told withal Nigh to what fountain by his comrades left The mariners cried on Hylas till the shore 'Then Re-echoed 'Hylas, Hylas! soothed Pasiphae with the love of her white bull- Happy if cattle-kind had never been!- O ill-starred maid, what frenzy caught thy soul The daughters too of Proetus filled the fields With their feigned lowings, yet no one of them Of such unhallowed union e'er was fain As with a beast to mate, though many a time On her smooth forehead she had sought for horns, And for her neck had feared the galling plough. O ill-starred maid! thou roamest now the hills, While on soft hyacinths he, his snowy side Reposing, under some dark ilex now Chews the pale herbage, or some heifer tracks Amid the crowding herd. Now close, ye Nymphs, Ye Nymphs of Dicte, close the forest-glades, If haply there may chance upon mine eyes The white bull's wandering foot-prints: him belike Following the herd, or by green pasture lured, Some kine may guide to the Gortynian stalls. Then sings he of the maid so wonder-struck With the apples of the Hesperids, and then With moss-bound, bitter bark rings round the forms Of Phaethon's fair sisters, from the ground Up-towering into poplars. Next he sings Of Gallus wandering by Permessus' stream, And by a sister of the Muses led To the Aonian mountains, and how all The choir of Phoebus rose to greet him; how The shepherd Linus, singer of songs divine, Brow-bound with flowers and bitter parsley, spake: 'These reeds the Muses give thee, take them thou, Erst to the aged bard of Ascra given, Wherewith in singing he was wont to draw Time-rooted ash-trees from the mountain heights. With these the birth of the Grynean grove Be voiced by thee, that of no grove beside Of Scylla, child of Nisus, who, 'tis said, Her fair white loins with barking monsters girt Vexed the Dulichian ships, and, in the deep Swift-eddying whirlpool, with her sea-dogs tore The trembling mariners? or how he told Of the changed limbs of Tereus- what a feast, What gifts, to him by Philomel were given; How swift she sought the desert, with what wings Hovered in anguish o'er her ancient home? All that, of old, Eurotas, happy stream, Heard, as Apollo mused upon the lyre, And bade his laurels learn, Silenus sang; Till from Olympus, loth at his approach, Vesper, advancing, bade the shepherds tell Their tale of sheep, and pen them in the fold.
 * But sing a slender song.' Now, Varus, I- **
 * //(Personification: Giving inanimate objects human characteristics, calling a song slender is like saying it has a skinny body)// **
 * With juice of blood-red mulberries smeared him o'er, **
 * //(Imagery: Using the 5 senses to paint a picture in a person's mind, saying the mulberries are blood-red)// **
 * Apollo more may boast him.' Wherefore speak **
 * //(Hyperbole, an over-exaggeration, saying that a god himself is boasting of a human being)// **

=Song #3: Cats in the Cradle=



My child arrived just the other day He came to the world in the usual way And he was talkin' 'fore I knew it, and as he grew He'd say "I'm gonna be like you dad You know I'm gonna be like you"
 * But there were planes to catch and bills to pay**
 * //(Personification: Giving nonhuman things human characteristics, a plane is not something that can be caught as if in one's arms)//**
 * He learned to walk while I was away**
 * //(Hyperbole: An over-exaggeration, saying that a period of so many years passed as the father was completely gone)//**

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon Little boy blue and the man on the moon When you comin' home dad? I don't know when, but we'll get together then son You know we'll have a good time then

My son turned ten just the other day He said, "Thanks for the ball, Dad, come on let's play Can you teach me to throw", I said "Not today I got a lot to do", he said, "That's ok" And he walked away but his smile never dimmed And said, "I'm gonna be like him, yeah You know I'm gonna be like him"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon Little boy blue and the man on the moon When you comin' home son? I don't know when, but we'll get together then son You know we'll have a good time then

Well, he came home from college just the other day So much like a man I just had to say "Son, I'm proud of you, can you sit for a while?" He shook his head and said with a smile "What I'd really like, Dad, is to borrow the car keys See you later, can I have them please?"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon Little boy blue and the man on the moon When you comin' home son? I don't know when, but we'll get together then son You know we'll have a good time then

I've long since retired, my son's moved away I called him up just the other day I said, "I'd like to see you if you don't mind" He said, "I'd love to, Dad, if I can find the time You see my new job's a hassle and kids have the flu But it's sure nice talking to you, Dad It's been sure nice talking to you"

And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me He'd grown up just like me My boy was just like me

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon Little boy blue and the man on the moon When you comin' home son? I don't know when, but we'll get together then son You know we'll have a good time then

//**Both of these songs are also declarations that deal with ideas of boasting about something on different levels, for example a person's father.**//