Book I - Part 07 - The Infinity Of The Universe Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGCHICJKLCMNOPQ RSTCUVJVCWCCVVXICVCC O VYZA2B2VCC2B2VV VCVB2B2OID2CE2VSOJF2 D2B2G2VH2VIII2J2IB2C K2SCVCCVICL2ICIVYNYZ NCVICC2L2VVCCSZNVVVM 2N2CF2VVO2VVK2ICCG2Y CIVP2IVVQ2CVR2SCVVF2 E2I2VCO2CS2T2NCVSSCN ICVU2IVSVLVE2D2VCA2P 2V2YCCV IW2Now learn of what remains More keenly hear | A |
And for myself my mind is not deceived | B |
How dark it is But the large hope of praise | C |
Hath strook with pointed thyrsus through my heart | D |
On the same hour hath strook into my breast | E |
Sweet love of the Muses wherewith now instinct | F |
I wander afield thriving in sturdy thought | G |
Through unpathed haunts of the Pierides | C |
Trodden by step of none before I joy | H |
To come on undefiled fountains there | I |
To drain them deep I joy to pluck new flowers | C |
To seek for this my head a signal crown | J |
From regions where the Muses never yet | K |
Have garlanded the temples of a man | L |
First since I teach concerning mighty things | C |
And go right on to loose from round the mind | M |
The tightened coils of dread religion | N |
Next since concerning themes so dark I frame | O |
Songs so pellucid touching all throughout | P |
Even with the Muses' charm which as 'twould seem | Q |
Is not without a reasonable ground | R |
But as physicians when they seek to give | S |
Young boys the nauseous wormwood first do touch | T |
The brim around the cup with the sweet juice | C |
And yellow of the boney in order that | U |
The thoughtless age of boyhood be cajoled | V |
As far as the lips and meanwhile swallow down | J |
The wormwood's bitter draught and though befooled | V |
Be yet not merely duped but rather thus | C |
Grow strong again with recreated health | W |
So now I too since this my doctrine seems | C |
In general somewhat woeful unto those | C |
Who've had it not in hand and since the crowd | V |
Starts back from it in horror have desired | V |
To expound our doctrine unto thee in song | X |
Soft speaking and Pierian and as 'twere | I |
To touch it with sweet honey of the Muse | C |
If by such method haply I might hold | V |
The mind of thee upon these lines of ours | C |
Till thou see through the nature of all things | C |
And how exists the interwoven frame | O |
- | |
But since I've taught that bodies of matter made | V |
Completely solid hither and thither fly | Y |
Forevermore unconquered through all time | Z |
Now come and whether to the sum of them | A2 |
There be a limit or be none for thee | B2 |
Let us unfold likewise what has been found | V |
To be the wide inane or room or space | C |
Wherein all things soever do go on | C2 |
Let us examine if it finite be | B2 |
All and entire or reach unmeasured round | V |
And downward an illimitable profound | V |
- | |
Thus then the All that is is limited | V |
In no one region of its onward paths | C |
For then 'tmust have forever its beyond | V |
And a beyond 'tis seen can never be | B2 |
For aught unless still further on there be | B2 |
A somewhat somewhere that may bound the same | O |
So that the thing be seen still on to where | I |
The nature of sensation of that thing | D2 |
Can follow it no longer Now because | C |
Confess we must there's naught beside the sum | E2 |
There's no beyond and so it lacks all end | V |
It matters nothing where thou post thyself | S |
In whatsoever regions of the same | O |
Even any place a man has set him down | J |
Still leaves about him the unbounded all | F2 |
Outward in all directions or supposing | D2 |
moment the all of space finite to be | B2 |
If some one farthest traveller runs forth | G2 |
Unto the extreme coasts and throws ahead | V |
A flying spear is't then thy wish to think | H2 |
It goes hurled off amain to where 'twas sent | V |
And shoots afar or that some object there | I |
Can thwart and stop it For the one or other | I |
Thou must admit and take Either of which | I2 |
Shuts off escape for thee and does compel | J2 |
That thou concede the all spreads everywhere | I |
Owning no confines Since whether there be | B2 |
Aught that may block and check it so it comes | C |
Not where 'twas sent nor lodges in its goal | K2 |
Or whether borne along in either view | S |
'Thas started not from any end And so | C |
I'll follow on and whereso'er thou set | V |
The extreme coasts I'll query what becomes | C |
Thereafter of thy spear 'Twill come to pass | C |
That nowhere can a world's end be and that | V |
The chance for further flight prolongs forever | I |
The flight itself Besides were all the space | C |
Of the totality and sum shut in | L2 |
With fixed coasts and bounded everywhere | I |
Then would the abundance of world's matter flow | C |
Together by solid weight from everywhere | I |
Still downward to the bottom of the world | V |
Nor aught could happen under cope of sky | Y |
Nor could there be a sky at all or sun | N |
Indeed where matter all one heap would lie | Y |
By having settled during infinite time | Z |
But in reality repose is given | N |
Unto no bodies 'mongst the elements | C |
Because there is no bottom whereunto | V |
They might as 'twere together flow and where | I |
They might take up their undisturbed abodes | C |
In endless motion everything goes on | C2 |
Forevermore out of all regions even | L2 |
Out of the pit below from forth the vast | V |
Are hurtled bodies evermore supplied | V |
The nature of room the space of the abyss | C |
Is such that even the flashing thunderbolts | C |
Can neither speed upon their courses through | S |
Gliding across eternal tracts of time | Z |
Nor further bring to pass as on they run | N |
That they may bate their journeying one whit | V |
Such huge abundance spreads for things around | V |
Room off to every quarter without end | V |
Lastly before our very eyes is seen | M2 |
Thing to bound thing air hedges hill from hill | N2 |
And mountain walls hedge air land ends the sea | C |
And sea in turn all lands but for the All | F2 |
Truly is nothing which outside may bound | V |
That too the sum of things itself may not | V |
Have power to fix a measure of its own | O2 |
Great Nature guards she who compels the void | V |
To bound all body as body all the void | V |
Thus rendering by these alternates the whole | K2 |
An infinite or else the one or other | I |
Being unbounded by the other spreads | C |
Even by its single nature ne'ertheless | C |
Immeasurably forth | G2 |
Nor sea nor earth nor shining vaults of sky | Y |
Nor breed of mortals nor holy limbs of gods | C |
Could keep their place least portion of an hour | I |
For driven apart from out its meetings fit | V |
The stock of stuff dissolved would be borne | P2 |
Along the illimitable inane afar | I |
Or rather in fact would never have once combined | V |
And given a birth to aught since scattered wide | V |
It could not be united For of truth | Q2 |
Neither by counsel did the primal germs | C |
'Stablish themselves as by keen act of mind | V |
Each in its proper place nor did they make | R2 |
Forsooth a compact how each germ should move | S |
But since being many and changed in many modes | C |
Along the All they're driven abroad and vexed | V |
By blow on blow even from all time of old | V |
They thus at last after attempting all | F2 |
The kinds of motion and conjoining come | E2 |
Into those great arrangements out of which | I2 |
This sum of things established is create | V |
By which moreover through the mighty years | C |
It is preserved when once it has been thrown | O2 |
Into the proper motions bringing to pass | C |
That ever the streams refresh the greedy main | S2 |
With river waves abounding and that earth | T2 |
Lapped in warm exhalations of the sun | N |
Renews her broods and that the lusty race | C |
Of breathing creatures bears and blooms and that | V |
The gliding fires of ether are alive | S |
What still the primal germs nowise could do | S |
Unless from out the infinite of space | C |
Could come supply of matter whence in season | N |
They're wont whatever losses to repair | I |
For as the nature of breathing creatures wastes | C |
Losing its body when deprived of food | V |
So all things have to be dissolved as soon | U2 |
As matter diverted by what means soever | I |
From off its course shall fail to be on hand | V |
Nor can the blows from outward still conserve | S |
On every side whatever sum of a world | V |
Has been united in a whole They can | L |
Indeed by frequent beating check a part | V |
Till others arriving may fulfil the sum | E2 |
But meanwhile often are they forced to spring | D2 |
Rebounding back and as they spring to yield | V |
Unto those elements whence a world derives | C |
Room and a time for flight permitting them | A2 |
To be from off the massy union borne | P2 |
Free and afar Wherefore again again | V2 |
Needs must there come a many for supply | Y |
And also that the blows themselves shall be | C |
Unfailing ever must there ever be | C |
An infinite force of matter all sides round | V |
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And in these problems shrink my Memmius far | I |
From yielding faith to th | W2 |
Lucretius
(1)
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