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Whisper's Muses

A classical oracle and reading room arranged in paper, ink, and line.

Search, draw, and read public-domain verse with stable line references and quiet editorial structure.

Verse

Works and Days

Book 1, Line 36 by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (English)

(ll. 405-413) First of all, get a house, and a woman and an ox for the plough-a slave woman and not a wife, to follow the oxen as well-and make everything ready at home, so that you may not have to ask of another, and he refuses you, and so, because you are in lack, the season pass by and your work come to nothing. Do not put your work off till to-morrow and the day after; for a sluggish worker does not fill his barn, nor one who puts off his work: industry makes work go well, but a man who puts off work is always at hand-grips with ruin.

Works and DaysHesiodHugh G. Evelyn-WhiteEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 1

Book 1, Line 36ProseID works-and-days-evelyn-white-en-prose-1-36

Project Gutenberg #348, Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, and Homerica (Hugh G. Evelyn-White), Works and Days