Book I - Part 01 - Proem Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLHHLMNMLH OPHQMHHMRSLTUHVWXBYZ MLA2HZMWHMB2C2D2HHE2 F2G2HHH2KHHHMHI2J2K2 HHL2HMRM2HN2O2ME2P2H E2HE2HHMLKHF2Q2MR2DH S2MT2MU2IMMV2W2TX2TL HR2Y2MTMHHO2Z2 MW2MX2A3MP2HB3C3A2MD 3E3F3LG3MH3I3RLS2MSC 3J3K3HMMF2HL3M3HMMother of Rome delight of Gods and men | A |
Dear Venus that beneath the gliding stars | B |
Makest to teem the many voyaged main | C |
And fruitful lands for all of living things | D |
Through thee alone are evermore conceived | E |
Through thee are risen to visit the great sun | F |
Before thee Goddess and thy coming on | G |
Flee stormy wind and massy cloud away | H |
For thee the daedal Earth bears scented flowers | I |
For thee waters of the unvexed deep | J |
Smile and the hollows of the serene sky | K |
Glow with diffused radiance for thee | L |
For soon as comes the springtime face of day | H |
And procreant gales blow from the West unbarred | H |
First fowls of air smit to the heart by thee | L |
Foretoken thy approach O thou Divine | M |
And leap the wild herds round the happy fields | N |
Or swim the bounding torrents Thus amain | M |
Seized with the spell all creatures follow thee | L |
Whithersoever thou walkest forth to lead | H |
And thence through seas and mountains and swift streams | O |
Through leafy homes of birds and greening plains | P |
Kindling the lure of love in every breast | H |
Thou bringest the eternal generations forth | Q |
Kind after kind And since 'tis thou alone | M |
Guidest the Cosmos and without thee naught | H |
Is risen to reach the shining shores of light | H |
Nor aught of joyful or of lovely born | M |
Thee do I crave co partner in that verse | R |
Which I presume on Nature to compose | S |
For Memmius mine whom thou hast willed to be | L |
Peerless in every grace at every hour | T |
Wherefore indeed Divine one give my words | U |
Immortal charm Lull to a timely rest | H |
O'er sea and land the savage works of war | V |
For thou alone hast power with public peace | W |
To aid mortality since he who rules | X |
The savage works of battle puissant Mars | B |
How often to thy bosom flings his strength | Y |
O'ermastered by the eternal wound of love | Z |
And there with eyes and full throat backward thrown | M |
Gazing my Goddess open mouthed at thee | L |
Pastures on love his greedy sight his breath | A2 |
Hanging upon thy lips Him thus reclined | H |
Fill with thy holy body round above | Z |
Pour from those lips soft syllables to win | M |
Peace for the Romans glorious Lady peace | W |
For in a season troublous to the state | H |
Neither may I attend this task of mine | M |
With thought untroubled nor mid such events | B2 |
The illustrious scion of the Memmian house | C2 |
Neglect the civic cause | D2 |
Whilst human kind | H |
Throughout the lands lay miserably crushed | H |
Before all eyes beneath Religion who | E2 |
Would show her head along the region skies | F2 |
Glowering on mortals with her hideous face | G2 |
A Greek it was who first opposing dared | H |
Raise mortal eyes that terror to withstand | H |
Whom nor the fame of Gods nor lightning's stroke | H2 |
Nor threatening thunder of the ominous sky | K |
Abashed but rather chafed to angry zest | H |
His dauntless heart to be the first to rend | H |
The crossbars at the gates of Nature old | H |
And thus his will and hardy wisdom won | M |
And forward thus he fared afar beyond | H |
The flaming ramparts of the world until | I2 |
He wandered the unmeasurable All | J2 |
Whence he to us a conqueror reports | K2 |
What things can rise to being what cannot | H |
And by what law to each its scope prescribed | H |
Its boundary stone that clings so deep in Time | L2 |
Wherefore Religion now is under foot | H |
And us his victory now exalts to heaven | M |
I know how hard it is in Latian verse | R |
To tell the dark discoveries of the Greeks | M2 |
Chiefly because our pauper speech must find | H |
Strange terms to fit the strangeness of the thing | N2 |
Yet worth of thine and the expected joy | O2 |
Of thy sweet friendship do persuade me on | M |
To bear all toil and wake the clear nights through | E2 |
Seeking with what of words and what of song | P2 |
I may at last most gloriously uncloud | H |
For thee the light beyond wherewith to view | E2 |
The core of being at the centre hid | H |
And for the rest summon to judgments true | E2 |
Unbusied ears and singleness of mind | H |
Withdrawn from cares lest these my gifts arranged | H |
For thee with eager service thou disdain | M |
Before thou comprehendest since for thee | L |
I prove the supreme law of Gods and sky | K |
And the primordial germs of things unfold | H |
Whence Nature all creates and multiplies | F2 |
And fosters all and whither she resolves | Q2 |
Each in the end when each is overthrown | M |
This ultimate stock we have devised to name | R2 |
Procreant atoms matter seeds of things | D |
Or primal bodies as primal to the world | H |
- | |
I fear perhaps thou deemest that we fare | S2 |
An impious road to realms of thought profane | M |
But 'tis that same religion oftener far | T2 |
Hath bred the foul impieties of men | M |
As once at Aulis the elected chiefs | U2 |
Foremost of heroes Danaan counsellors | I |
Defiled Diana's altar virgin queen | M |
With Agamemnon's daughter foully slain | M |
She felt the chaplet round her maiden locks | V2 |
And fillets fluttering down on either cheek | W2 |
And at the altar marked her grieving sire | T |
The priests beside him who concealed the knife | X2 |
And all the folk in tears at sight of her | T |
With a dumb terror and a sinking knee | L |
She dropped nor might avail her now that first | H |
'Twas she who gave the king a father's name | R2 |
They raised her up they bore the trembling girl | Y2 |
On to the altar hither led not now | M |
With solemn rites and hymeneal choir | T |
But sinless woman sinfully foredone | M |
A parent felled her on her bridal day | H |
Making his child a sacrificial beast | H |
To give the ships auspicious winds for Troy | O2 |
Such are the crimes to which Religion leads | Z2 |
- | |
And there shall come the time when even thou | M |
Forced by the soothsayer's terror tales shalt seek | W2 |
To break from us Ah many a dream even now | M |
Can they concoct to rout thy plans of life | X2 |
And trouble all thy fortunes with base fears | A3 |
I own with reason for if men but knew | M |
Some fixed end to ills they would be strong | P2 |
By some device unconquered to withstand | H |
Religions and the menacings of seers | B3 |
But now nor skill nor instrument is theirs | C3 |
Since men must dread eternal pains in death | A2 |
For what the soul may be they do not know | M |
Whether 'tis born or enter in at birth | D3 |
And whether snatched by death it die with us | E3 |
Or visit the shadows and the vasty caves | F3 |
Of Orcus or by some divine decree | L |
Enter the brute herds as our Ennius sang | G3 |
Who first from lovely Helicon brought down | M |
A laurel wreath of bright perennial leaves | H3 |
Renowned forever among the Italian clans | I3 |
Yet Ennius too in everlasting verse | R |
Proclaims those vaults of Acheron to be | L |
Though thence he said nor souls nor bodies fare | S2 |
But only phantom figures strangely wan | M |
And tells how once from out those regions rose | S |
Old Homer's ghost to him and shed salt tears | C3 |
And with his words unfolded Nature's source | J3 |
Then be it ours with steady mind to clasp | K3 |
The purport of the skies the law behind | H |
The wandering courses of the sun and moon | M |
To scan the powers that speed all life below | M |
But most to see with reasonable eyes | F2 |
Of what the mind of what the soul is made | H |
And what it is so terrible that breaks | L3 |
On us asleep or waking in disease | M3 |
Until we seem to mark and hear at hand | H |
Dead men whose bones earth bosomed long ago | M |
Lucretius
(1)
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