Eclogue 2

In this Eclogue the herdsman Corydon laments his inability to win the affections of the young Alexis.

[1] It is an imitation of the eleventh Idyll of Theocritus, in which the Cyclops Polyphemus laments the cruelty of the sea-nymph Galatea.

[3] The subject of this poem is the complaint of a herder of sheep and goats, Corydon, who is in love with a handsome blond boy Alexis.

Having wasted the whole day singing, therefore, he realises that he could put his time to better use, telling himself "You will find another Alexis, if this one spurns you" (line 73).

The poem is said to represent the admiration of Virgil for a young slave whom he saw at the house of his patron Asinius Pollio, and whose beauty he thus celebrates, in the conventional style of pastoral verse.