When gods alike and mortals rose to birth,
A golden race the immortals formed on earth
Of many-languaged men : they lived of old,
When Saturn reigned in heaven, an age of gold.
Like gods they lived, with calm untroubled mind,
Free from the toils and anguish of our kind.
Nor e’er decrepit age misshaped their frame,
The hand’s, the foot’s proportions still the same.
Strangers to ill, their lives in feasts flowed by :
Wealthy in flocks ; dear to the blest on high;
Dying they sank in sleep, nor seemed to die.
Theirs was each good ; the life-sustaining soil
Yielded its copious fruits, unbribed by toil.
They with abundant goods ‘midst quiet lands
All willing shared the gathering of their hands.
Translation and Extract
Source: https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_ABDTnsB3zVgC/page/n129