In a brief couplet at the start, the speaker refers to the Muse of comedy and good cheer, Thalia, describing how she prefers he write pastoral poetry (“to play with Syracusan verse […] to inhabit the woodlands;” Lines 1-2). He tried to compose another genre of poetry, epic (“singing of battles and kings,” Line 3), but the god Apollo (called Cynthius here) encouraged him to write pastoral forms. The speaker alludes to the military exploits of Varus, a contemporary Roman of Virgil’s time, before proceeding with his pastoral story (Lines 6-12). He commands the Pierides (another name for the Muses) to begin (Line 13).

Two boys, Mnasyllus and Chromis, find the woodland god of drunken revelry, Silenus, hungover and asleep in a cave. With the help of a nymph, the boys bind the god with his own garlands as they want him to sing a song. Laughing, Silenus agrees, while darkly hinting at “another reward” for the nymph (Lines 13-30).

Silenus sings of the initial forming of the cosmos, the cosmogony (Lines 31-41). He then sings about mythological figures—including Pyrrha, who survived a great flood in the early days of man (Line 42), Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods for mankind (Line 43), and Pasiphae, who fell in love with a bull (Lines 46-60).