Classic Poem

TO THE SHEPHERD-GOD

(Theocritus)

Daphnis, the country pipe-player,
Offers these to Pan with prayer:
His river-reed that's pierced for singing;
The crooked stick he kept for flinging
At hares: his javelin sharp and slender:
His fawn-skin tawny-gray and tender,
Whose fur the faintest pattern dapples:
His little scrip that smells of apples.