GEORGIC, a poetical composition upon the subject of husbandry, containing rules therein, put into a pleasing dress, and set off with all the beauties and embellishments of poetry. The word is borrowed from the Latin georgicus, and that of the Greek γεωργικος, of γῆ, terra, "earth," and γεωργικος, opero, "I work, or labour," of γεω, opus, "work."
Hesiod and Virgil are the two greatest masters in this kind of poetry.
The moderns have produced nothing in this kind, except Rapin's book of Gardening; and the celebrated poem entitled Cyder, by Mr. Philips, who, if he had enjoyed the advantage of Virgil's language, would have been second to Virgil in a much nearer degree.