Book Ii - Part 02 - Atomic Motions Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSQ TUJVWXYZA2B2GC2D2E2F 2D2G2H2I2J2E2QK2L2M2 N2O2E2BXP2YQ2D2R2S2T 2U2V2I2W2X2D2Y2Z2A3B 3C3LXD2D3P2E3WF3D2G3 C2H3I3M2J3BID2K3I2L3 M3D2O2N3NO3J2P3Q3R3L D2S3D3T3FU3J2V3W3X3L CD3D2F2Y3Y3U2E2E2Z3E 2H3A4E2Q2D2E2E2H3E2D 2H3B4C4K2D4E4 D2EE2E2F4H3D2E2G4H4E 2Y3I4H3J4J2K4E2I4E2L 4E2D2M4TE2D2N4O4X2 D2D2P4Q4E3T3V2WD2R4A 4D2R4| Now come I will untangle for thy steps | A |
| Now by what motions the begetting bodies | B |
| Of the world stuff beget the varied world | C |
| And then forever resolve it when begot | D |
| And by what force they are constrained to this | E |
| And what the speed appointed unto them | F |
| Wherewith to travel down the vast inane | G |
| Do thou remember to yield thee to my words | H |
| For truly matter coheres not crowds not tight | I |
| Since we behold each thing to wane away | J |
| And we observe how all flows on and off | K |
| As 'twere with age old time and from our eyes | L |
| How eld withdraws each object at the end | M |
| Albeit the sum is seen to bide the same | N |
| Unharmed because these motes that leave each thing | O |
| Diminish what they part from but endow | P |
| With increase those to which in turn they come | Q |
| Constraining these to wither in old age | R |
| And those to flower at the prime and yet | S |
| Biding not long among them Thus the sum | Q |
| Forever is replenished and we live | T |
| As mortals by eternal give and take | U |
| The nations wax the nations wane away | J |
| In a brief space the generations pass | V |
| And like to runners hand the lamp of life | W |
| One unto other | X |
| But if thou believe | Y |
| That the primordial germs of things can stop | Z |
| And in their stopping give new motions birth | A2 |
| Afar thou wanderest from the road of truth | B2 |
| For since they wander through the void inane | G |
| All the primordial germs of things must needs | C2 |
| Be borne along either by weight their own | D2 |
| Or haply by another's blow without | E2 |
| For when in their incessancy so oft | F2 |
| They meet and clash it comes to pass amain | D2 |
| They leap asunder face to face not strange | G2 |
| Being most hard and solid in their weights | H2 |
| And naught opposing motion from behind | I2 |
| And that more clearly thou perceive how all | J2 |
| These mites of matter are darted round about | E2 |
| Recall to mind how nowhere in the sum | Q |
| Of All exists a bottom nowhere is | K2 |
| A realm of rest for primal bodies since | L2 |
| As amply shown and proved by reason sure | M2 |
| Space has no bound nor measure and extends | N2 |
| Unmetered forth in all directions round | O2 |
| Since this stands certain thus 'tis out of doubt | E2 |
| No rest is rendered to the primal bodies | B |
| Along the unfathomable inane but rather | X |
| Inveterately plied by motions mixed | P2 |
| Some at their jamming bound aback and leave | Y |
| Huge gaps between and some from off the blow | Q2 |
| Are hurried about with spaces small between | D2 |
| And all which brought together with slight gaps | R2 |
| In more condensed union bound aback | S2 |
| Linked by their own all intertangled shapes | T2 |
| These form the irrefragable roots of rocks | U2 |
| And the brute bulks of iron and what else | V2 |
| Is of their kind | I2 |
| The rest leap far asunder far recoil | W2 |
| Leaving huge gaps between and these supply | X2 |
| For us thin air and splendour lights of the sun | D2 |
| And many besides wander the mighty void | Y2 |
| Cast back from unions of existing things | Z2 |
| Nowhere accepted in the universe | A3 |
| And nowise linked in motions to the rest | B3 |
| And of this fact as I record it here | C3 |
| An image a type goes on before our eyes | L |
| Present each moment for behold whenever | X |
| The sun's light and the rays let in pour down | D2 |
| Across dark halls of houses thou wilt see | D3 |
| The many mites in many a manner mixed | P2 |
| Amid a void in the very light of the rays | E3 |
| And battling on as in eternal strife | W |
| And in battalions contending without halt | F3 |
| In meetings partings harried up and down | D2 |
| From this thou mayest conjecture of what sort | G3 |
| The ceaseless tossing of primordial seeds | C2 |
| Amid the mightier void at least so far | H3 |
| As small affair can for a vaster serve | I3 |
| And by example put thee on the spoor | M2 |
| Of knowledge For this reason too 'tis fit | J3 |
| Thou turn thy mind the more unto these bodies | B |
| Which here are witnessed tumbling in the light | I |
| Namely because such tumblings are a sign | D2 |
| That motions also of the primal stuff | K3 |
| Secret and viewless lurk beneath behind | I2 |
| For thou wilt mark here many a speck impelled | L3 |
| By viewless blows to change its little course | M3 |
| And beaten backwards to return again | D2 |
| Hither and thither in all directions round | O2 |
| Lo all their shifting movement is of old | N3 |
| From the primeval atoms for the same | N |
| Primordial seeds of things first move of self | O3 |
| And then those bodies built of unions small | J2 |
| And nearest as it were unto the powers | P3 |
| Of the primeval atoms are stirred up | Q3 |
| By impulse of those atoms' unseen blows | R3 |
| And these thereafter goad the next in size | L |
| Thus motion ascends from the primevals on | D2 |
| And stage by stage emerges to our sense | S3 |
| Until those objects also move which we | D3 |
| Can mark in sunbeams though it not appears | T3 |
| What blows do urge them | F |
| Herein wonder not | U3 |
| How 'tis that while the seeds of things are all | J2 |
| Moving forever the sum yet seems to stand | V3 |
| Supremely still except in cases where | W3 |
| A thing shows motion of its frame as whole | X3 |
| For far beneath the ken of senses lies | L |
| The nature of those ultimates of the world | C |
| And so since those themselves thou canst not see | D3 |
| Their motion also must they veil from men | D2 |
| For mark indeed how things we can see oft | F2 |
| Yet hide their motions when afar from us | Y3 |
| Along the distant landscape Often thus | Y3 |
| Upon a hillside will the woolly flocks | U2 |
| Be cropping their goodly food and creeping about | E2 |
| Whither the summons of the grass begemmed | E2 |
| With the fresh dew is calling and the lambs | Z3 |
| Well filled are frisking locking horns in sport | E2 |
| Yet all for us seem blurred and blent afar | H3 |
| A glint of white at rest on a green hill | A4 |
| Again when mighty legions marching round | E2 |
| Fill all the quarters of the plains below | Q2 |
| Rousing a mimic warfare there the sheen | D2 |
| Shoots up the sky and all the fields about | E2 |
| Glitter with brass and from beneath a sound | E2 |
| Goes forth from feet of stalwart soldiery | H3 |
| And mountain walls smote by the shouting send | E2 |
| The voices onward to the stars of heaven | D2 |
| And hither and thither darts the cavalry | H3 |
| And of a sudden down the midmost fields | B4 |
| Charges with onset stout enough to rock | C4 |
| The solid earth and yet some post there is | K2 |
| Up the high mountains viewed from which they seem | D4 |
| To stand a gleam at rest along the plains | E4 |
| - | |
| Now what the speed to matter's atoms given | D2 |
| Thou mayest in few my Memmius learn from this | E |
| When first the dawn is sprinkling with new light | E2 |
| The lands and all the breed of birds abroad | E2 |
| Flit round the trackless forests with liquid notes | F4 |
| Filling the regions along the mellow air | H3 |
| We see 'tis forthwith manifest to man | D2 |
| How suddenly the risen sun is wont | E2 |
| At such an hour to overspread and clothe | G4 |
| The whole with its own splendour but the sun's | H4 |
| Warm exhalations and this serene light | E2 |
| Travel not down an empty void and thus | Y3 |
| They are compelled more slowly to advance | I4 |
| Whilst as it were they cleave the waves of air | H3 |
| Nor one by one travel these particles | J4 |
| Of the warm exhalations but are all | J2 |
| Entangled and enmassed whereby at once | K4 |
| Each is restrained by each and from without | E2 |
| Checked till compelled more slowly to advance | I4 |
| But the primordial atoms with their old | E2 |
| Simple solidity when forth they travel | L4 |
| Along the empty void all undelayed | E2 |
| By aught outside them there and they each one | D2 |
| Being one unit from nature of its parts | M4 |
| Are borne to that one place on which they strive | T |
| Still to lay hold must then beyond a doubt | E2 |
| Outstrip in speed and be more swiftly borne | D2 |
| Than light of sun and over regions rush | N4 |
| Of space much vaster in the self same time | O4 |
| The sun's effulgence widens round the sky | X2 |
| - | |
| Nor to pursue the atoms one by one | D2 |
| To see the law whereby each thing goes on | D2 |
| But some men ignorant of matter think | P4 |
| Opposing this that not without the gods | Q4 |
| In such adjustment to our human ways | E3 |
| Can Nature change the seasons of the years | T3 |
| And bring to birth the grains and all of else | V2 |
| To which divine Delight the guide of life | W |
| Persuades mortality and leads it on | D2 |
| That through her artful blandishments of love | R4 |
| It propagate the generations still | A4 |
| Lest humankind should perish When they feign | D2 |
| That gods have stablished all things but fo | R4 |
Lucretius
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
About Book Ii - Part 02 - Atomic Motions
Book Ii - Part 02 - Atomic Motions is a poem by Lucretius. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.