At mater viridis ... notumque requirit,
shows a similar observation of the strength of bovine affection.
‘Soon no longer shall thy home receive thee with glad greeting, nor thy most excellent wife, nor thy dear children run to meet thee to snatch the first kiss.’
The most classical of our own poets seems to combine both representations with the thought and representation of an earlier passage of the Georgics
(Et quidam seros hiberni ad luminis ignes, etc.)
in the familiar stanza—
For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,
Or busy housewife ply her evening care;
No children run to meet their sire’s return,
And climb his knees the envied kiss to share.