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John Dryden called Virgil's Georgics, written between 37 and 30 B.C.E., "the best poem by the best poet." The poem, newly translated by the poet and translator David Ferry, is one of the great songs, maybe the greatest we have, of human accomplishment in difficult--and... Read Full Overview

Virgil's affectionate poem of the land brings us the disappointments as well as the rewards of the countryman's year-round devotion to his crops, his vines and olives, livestock great and small, and the complex society of his bees. Part agricultural manual, part political poem... Read Full Overview

One of the greatest poems of the classical world

What makes the cornfield smile; beneath what star
Maecenas, it is meet to turn the sod
Or marry elm with vine; how tend the steer;
What pains for cattle-keeping, or what proof
Of patient trial serves for thrifty bees;-
Such are my themes.

Virgil's Georgics, considered to be one of the great poems of Western literature, is ostensibly a didactic poem on agriculture. Challenging this idea, the late Sir Roger Mynors argues that the poem's true subject is humanity and its place in nature and society. The poem is also... Read Full Overview

A eulogy to Italy as the temperate land of perpetual spring, and a celebration of the values of rustic piety, The Georgics is probably the supreme achievement of Latin poetry.

Events from the French Revolution through the twentieth century, including the Spanish Civil War and the defeat of France in 1940, are interwoven to present an ironic view of history and the folly and wastefulness of war.

Virgil's Georgics, considered to be one of the great poems of Western literature, is ostensibly a didactic poem on agriculture. Challenging this idea, the late Sir Roger Mynors argues that the poem's true subject is humanity and its place in nature and society. The poem is also... Read Full Overview

"In the whole of European literature there is no poet who can furnish the texts for a more significant variety of discourse than Virgil. He] symbolizes so much in the history of Europe, and represents such central European values..." -T.S. Eliot

The Georgics... Read Full Overview

English summary: Virgils Georgics continues on the success of his earlier bucolic works. However, behind this praise of country life lies political goals of reestablishing the virtues of the family and traditional cults that were suffering from intense Roman expansion. Patriotic... Read Full Overview

Virgil's Georgics, considered to be one of the great poems of Western literature, is ostensibly a didactic poem on agriculture. Challenging this idea, the late Sir Roger Mynors argues that the poem's true subject is humanity and its place in nature and society. The poem is also... Read Full Overview

Virgil (70-19 B.C.) needs no formal introduction, as he has long been considered Ancient Rome's greatest poet and is globally renowned for The Aeneid, one of the most famous epic poems in history. Virgil's other greatest works are considered to be the Eclogues (or Bucolics),... Read Full Overview

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original... Read Full Overview