The Poetry Corner

From The Same Idyl (Pictures From Theocritus - From Idyl I.)

By William Lisle Bowles

Mark, where the beetling precipice appears, The toil of the old fisher, gray with years; Mark, as to drag the laden net he strains, The labouring muscle and the swelling veins! There, in the sun, the clustered vineyard bends, And shines empurpled, as the morn ascends! A little boy, with idly-happy mien, To guard the grapes upon the ground is seen; Two wily foxes creeping round appear, The scrip that holds his morning meal is near, One breaks the bending vines; with longing lip, And look askance, one eyes the tempting scrip. He plats and plats his rushy net all day, And makes the vagrant grasshopper his prey; He plats his net, intent with idle care, Nor heeds how vineyard, grape, or scrip may fare.