The Georgics: A Poem of the Land (Penguin Classics)

"Georgic" mans "to work the earth," and Virgil's Georgics (29 BC) is a poetic celebration of the land, combining practical agricultural wisdom with exuberant fantasy and eulogies to the rhythms of nature. It describes hills strewn with wild berries, recommends watching the stars to determine when to plant seeds and gives guidance on making wine and keeping bees. Yet the Georgics also tells of angry gods, fierce battles and a natural world fraught with danger from storms, pests and plagues.

At once a reflection on the cycles of life, death and rebirth, an argument for the nobility of labour and a passionate hymn to the Roman Empire of Virgil's times, the Georgics is one of the most extraordinary poems of the classical world.