The style is thus, in a great degree, Virgil's own, and owes little to the borrowed beauties of Greek expression. Though the language of the Alexandrine poets is sometimes reproduced, yet the beauty of those transferred passages arises from the grace given to them, not from that borrowed from them. The same may be said of the use sometimes made of the quaint diction of Hesiod. In one or two striking passages, such as that
Virgil has adopted the language of the Iliad(430); and though it is impossible to improve on that, yet there is no slavish imitation of it; only a new picture is painted, recalling, by some vivid touches, a former piece by the great master. If detraction is to be made from the originality of expression in the Georgics, the debt due by Virgil was incurred to his own countryman. In adopting modes of expression from Lucretius, Virgil brings down the bold creativeness of his original to a tone more suited to the habitual sobriety of the Italian imagination. He often fixes into the form of some general thought what appears in Lucretius as a living movement or individualised action. And this tendency to abstract rather than concrete representation is in accordance with the Roman mould of mind. We notice also how much more sparingly he uses such compound words as 'navigerum,' 'silvifragis,' etc., by which the earlier poets endeavoured to force the harder metal of the Latin language into the flexibility of Greek speech. Virgil felt that these innovations were unsuited to the genius of the Latin tongue, and endeavoured to enlarge its capacities by novel constructions and by using old words with a new application rather than by novel formations of words. But this gain was perhaps more than compensated by the loss which the language suffered in idiomatic purity and clearness.
In rhythmical movement the poem exhibits the highest perfection of which Latin verse is capable. Of Homer's verse it has been happily said that it has 'a tranquil deep strength, reminding us of his own line,
{ ~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER XI~} { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH TONOS~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~} { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH TONOS~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~} { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH PSILI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}(431).