Complete Poetical Works, Volume 2: Forest Poems

The hand that once carried curved hunting spears pressed
lethal iron into his own chest.
It is not the case that because Diana The Roman goddess of the hunt and virginity. is depicted
with a maiden's face and dressed in beautiful attire,
that whoever has sworn by her hunting horns is immediately
proven to sleep as a celibate.
Is there any race more wanton than the pine-bearing Satyrs?
Yet that race inhabits every grove.
Who does not know the Dryads? Is any prostitute better known?
They do not frequent cities, but the countryside.
Glaucus defiled Amymone in the shadow of the groves:
and she was carrying both a quiver and a bow.
The boar itself, acting as an avenger, struck the impure Adonis,
even though his Venus original: "Cypride." An epithet for Venus/Aphrodite, referring to her birth on the island of Cyprus. wept for her losses.
Poemenis and Sticte had mothers from Arcadia,
as did Theron and the noble Alce These are names of hunting dogs from the myth of Actaeon, who was torn apart by his own hounds after seeing Diana bathing..
And yet hunting is labor: Venus prefers leisure
and the swans of the snoring bedchamber.
But sometimes Venus, provoked by labor, rages,
and the fiery goddess gains strength from the chase:
she flees from sleep and learned rest,
hating Parnassus and the Muses.

II.

The harvest is here. Bring out the knotted nets
from the rooftops at last, Orion the Hunter.
The time remains favorable. Run through the glades
surrounded by the hunting-nets now, and keep watch.
It is permitted to go against the swift stags as soon as
the yearly growths on their foreheads have hardened This refers to the annual cycle where stags grow and then shed the velvet from their antlers..
Later, when Pomona The goddess of fruit and the harvest, symbolizing autumn. shows her beautiful face,
this Opportunity grows bald The Roman personification of Opportunity, Occasio, was depicted with hair over her face but bald at the back of her head. One must grab her by the forelock as she approaches, for she cannot be caught once she has passed..
For then they indulge in Venus. A madness seethes within,
which is often formidable A description of the rutting season, when stags become aggressive and lose their physical condition..
Therefore, as the first light of day has scarcely awakened,
brought back from the East in a yellow chariot:
In a long line across the fields, a chosen force of dogs
captures the omens with their snouts: