Uploaded on December 19, 2011
… His cradle shall with rising flowers be crowned;
The serpent’s brood shall die: the sacred ground
Shall weeds and pois’nous plants refuse to bear,
Each common bush shall Syrian roses wear.
But when heroic verse his youth shall raise
And form it to hereditary praise;
Unlabored harvests hall the fields adorn,
And clustered grapes shall blush on every thorn.
The knotted oaks shall showers of honey weep,
And through the matted grass the liquid gold shall creep.
—Virgil, translated by John Dryden (1631 to 1700),
appearing in O Holy Night: Masterworks of Christmas Poetry
edited by Johann Moser
12.19.2023: Everything has changed, even my relationship with “classical literature.”