Book I - Part 01 - Proem Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLHHLMNMLH OPHQMHHMRSLTUHVWXBYZ MLA2HZMWHMB2C2D2HHE2 F2G2HHH2KHHHMHI2J2K2 HHL2HMRM2HN2O2ME2P2H E2HE2HHMLKHF2Q2MR2DH S2MT2MU2IMMV2W2TX2TL HR2Y2MTMHHO2Z2 MW2MX2A3MP2HB3C3A2MD 3E3F3LG3MH3I3RLS2MSC 3J3K3HMMF2HL3M3HM

Mother of Rome delight of Gods and menA
Dear Venus that beneath the gliding starsB
Makest to teem the many voyaged mainC
And fruitful lands for all of living thingsD
Through thee alone are evermore conceivedE
Through thee are risen to visit the great sunF
Before thee Goddess and thy coming onG
Flee stormy wind and massy cloud awayH
For thee the daedal Earth bears scented flowersI
For thee waters of the unvexed deepJ
Smile and the hollows of the serene skyK
Glow with diffused radiance for theeL
For soon as comes the springtime face of dayH
And procreant gales blow from the West unbarredH
First fowls of air smit to the heart by theeL
Foretoken thy approach O thou DivineM
And leap the wild herds round the happy fieldsN
Or swim the bounding torrents Thus amainM
Seized with the spell all creatures follow theeL
Whithersoever thou walkest forth to leadH
And thence through seas and mountains and swift streamsO
Through leafy homes of birds and greening plainsP
Kindling the lure of love in every breastH
Thou bringest the eternal generations forthQ
Kind after kind And since 'tis thou aloneM
Guidest the Cosmos and without thee naughtH
Is risen to reach the shining shores of lightH
Nor aught of joyful or of lovely bornM
Thee do I crave co partner in that verseR
Which I presume on Nature to composeS
For Memmius mine whom thou hast willed to beL
Peerless in every grace at every hourT
Wherefore indeed Divine one give my wordsU
Immortal charm Lull to a timely restH
O'er sea and land the savage works of warV
For thou alone hast power with public peaceW
To aid mortality since he who rulesX
The savage works of battle puissant MarsB
How often to thy bosom flings his strengthY
O'ermastered by the eternal wound of loveZ
And there with eyes and full throat backward thrownM
Gazing my Goddess open mouthed at theeL
Pastures on love his greedy sight his breathA2
Hanging upon thy lips Him thus reclinedH
Fill with thy holy body round aboveZ
Pour from those lips soft syllables to winM
Peace for the Romans glorious Lady peaceW
For in a season troublous to the stateH
Neither may I attend this task of mineM
With thought untroubled nor mid such eventsB2
The illustrious scion of the Memmian houseC2
Neglect the civic causeD2
Whilst human kindH
Throughout the lands lay miserably crushedH
Before all eyes beneath Religion whoE2
Would show her head along the region skiesF2
Glowering on mortals with her hideous faceG2
A Greek it was who first opposing daredH
Raise mortal eyes that terror to withstandH
Whom nor the fame of Gods nor lightning's strokeH2
Nor threatening thunder of the ominous skyK
Abashed but rather chafed to angry zestH
His dauntless heart to be the first to rendH
The crossbars at the gates of Nature oldH
And thus his will and hardy wisdom wonM
And forward thus he fared afar beyondH
The flaming ramparts of the world untilI2
He wandered the unmeasurable AllJ2
Whence he to us a conqueror reportsK2
What things can rise to being what cannotH
And by what law to each its scope prescribedH
Its boundary stone that clings so deep in TimeL2
Wherefore Religion now is under footH
And us his victory now exalts to heavenM
I know how hard it is in Latian verseR
To tell the dark discoveries of the GreeksM2
Chiefly because our pauper speech must findH
Strange terms to fit the strangeness of the thingN2
Yet worth of thine and the expected joyO2
Of thy sweet friendship do persuade me onM
To bear all toil and wake the clear nights throughE2
Seeking with what of words and what of songP2
I may at last most gloriously uncloudH
For thee the light beyond wherewith to viewE2
The core of being at the centre hidH
And for the rest summon to judgments trueE2
Unbusied ears and singleness of mindH
Withdrawn from cares lest these my gifts arrangedH
For thee with eager service thou disdainM
Before thou comprehendest since for theeL
I prove the supreme law of Gods and skyK
And the primordial germs of things unfoldH
Whence Nature all creates and multipliesF2
And fosters all and whither she resolvesQ2
Each in the end when each is overthrownM
This ultimate stock we have devised to nameR2
Procreant atoms matter seeds of thingsD
Or primal bodies as primal to the worldH
-
I fear perhaps thou deemest that we fareS2
An impious road to realms of thought profaneM
But 'tis that same religion oftener farT2
Hath bred the foul impieties of menM
As once at Aulis the elected chiefsU2
Foremost of heroes Danaan counsellorsI
Defiled Diana's altar virgin queenM
With Agamemnon's daughter foully slainM
She felt the chaplet round her maiden locksV2
And fillets fluttering down on either cheekW2
And at the altar marked her grieving sireT
The priests beside him who concealed the knifeX2
And all the folk in tears at sight of herT
With a dumb terror and a sinking kneeL
She dropped nor might avail her now that firstH
'Twas she who gave the king a father's nameR2
They raised her up they bore the trembling girlY2
On to the altar hither led not nowM
With solemn rites and hymeneal choirT
But sinless woman sinfully foredoneM
A parent felled her on her bridal dayH
Making his child a sacrificial beastH
To give the ships auspicious winds for TroyO2
Such are the crimes to which Religion leadsZ2
-
And there shall come the time when even thouM
Forced by the soothsayer's terror tales shalt seekW2
To break from us Ah many a dream even nowM
Can they concoct to rout thy plans of lifeX2
And trouble all thy fortunes with base fearsA3
I own with reason for if men but knewM
Some fixed end to ills they would be strongP2
By some device unconquered to withstandH
Religions and the menacings of seersB3
But now nor skill nor instrument is theirsC3
Since men must dread eternal pains in deathA2
For what the soul may be they do not knowM
Whether 'tis born or enter in at birthD3
And whether snatched by death it die with usE3
Or visit the shadows and the vasty cavesF3
Of Orcus or by some divine decreeL
Enter the brute herds as our Ennius sangG3
Who first from lovely Helicon brought downM
A laurel wreath of bright perennial leavesH3
Renowned forever among the Italian clansI3
Yet Ennius too in everlasting verseR
Proclaims those vaults of Acheron to beL
Though thence he said nor souls nor bodies fareS2
But only phantom figures strangely wanM
And tells how once from out those regions roseS
Old Homer's ghost to him and shed salt tearsC3
And with his words unfolded Nature's sourceJ3
Then be it ours with steady mind to claspK3
The purport of the skies the law behindH
The wandering courses of the sun and moonM
To scan the powers that speed all life belowM
But most to see with reasonable eyesF2
Of what the mind of what the soul is madeH
And what it is so terrible that breaksL3
On us asleep or waking in diseaseM3
Until we seem to mark and hear at handH
Dead men whose bones earth bosomed long agoM

Lucretius



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