Book Ii - Part 04 - Absence Of Secondary Qualities Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Now come this wisdom by my sweet toil sought	A
Look thou perceive lest haply thou shouldst guess	B
That the white objects shining to thine eyes	C
Are gendered of white atoms or the black	D
Of a black seed or yet believe that aught	A
That's steeped in any hue should take its dye	E
From bits of matter tinct with hue the same	F
For matter's bodies own no hue the least	A
Or like to objects or again unlike	G
But if percase it seem to thee that mind	A
Itself can dart no influence of its own	H
Into these bodies wide thou wand'rest off	I
For since the blind born who have ne'er surveyed	A
The light of sun yet recognise by touch	J
Things that from birth had ne'er a hue for them	K
'Tis thine to know that bodies can be brought	A
No less unto the ken of our minds too	A
Though yet those bodies with no dye be smeared	A
Again ourselves whatever in the dark	L
We touch the same we do not find to be	M
Tinctured with any colour	N
Now that here	N
I win the argument I next will teach	O
	-
Now every colour changes none except	A
And every	N
Which the primordials ought nowise to do	A
Since an immutable somewhat must remain	P
Lest all things utterly be brought to naught	A
For change of anything from out its bounds	Q
Means instant death of that which was before	N
Wherefore be mindful not to stain with colour	N
The seeds of things lest things return for thee	N
All utterly to naught	A
But now if seeds	R
Receive no property of colour and yet	A
Be still endowed with variable forms	S
From which all kinds of colours they beget	A
And vary by reason that ever it matters much	J
With what seeds and in what positions joined	A
And what the motions that they give and get	A
Forthwith most easily thou mayst devise	C
Why what was black of hue an hour ago	T
Can of a sudden like the marble gleam	U
As ocean when the high winds have upheaved	A
Its level plains is changed to hoary waves	V
Of marble whiteness for thou mayst declare	N
That when the thing we often see as black	D
Is in its matter then commixed anew	A
Some atoms rearranged and some withdrawn	W
And added some 'tis seen forthwith to turn	X
Glowing and white But if of azure seeds	R
Consist the level waters of the deep	Y
They could in nowise whiten for however	N
Thou shakest azure seeds the same can never	N
Pass into marble hue But if the seeds	R
Which thus produce the ocean's one pure sheen	Z
Be now with one hue now another dyed	A
As oft from alien forms and divers shapes	A2
A cube's produced all uniform in shape	B2
'Twould be but natural even as in the cube	C2
We see the forms to be dissimilar	N
That thus we'd see in brightness of the deep	Y
Or in whatever one pure sheen thou wilt	A
Colours diverse and all dissimilar	N
Besides the unlike shapes don't thwart the least	A
The whole in being externally a cube	C2
But differing hues of things do block and keep	Y
The whole from being of one resultant hue	A
Then too the reason which entices us	D2
At times to attribute colours to the seeds	R
Falls quite to pieces since white things are not	A
Create from white things nor are black from black	D
But evermore they are create from things	E2
Of divers colours Verily the white	A
Will rise more readily is sooner born	F2
Out of no colour than of black or aught	A
Which stands in hostile opposition thus	D2
	-
Besides since colours cannot be sans light	A
And the primordials come not forth to light	A
'Tis thine to know they are not clothed with colour	N
Truly what kind of colour could there be	N
In the viewless dark Nay in the light itself	G2
A colour changes gleaming variedly	H2
When smote by vertical or slanting ray	N
Thus in the sunlight shows the down of doves	I2
That circles garlanding the nape and throat	A
Now it is ruddy with a bright gold bronze	J2
Now by a strange sensation it becomes	K2
Green emerald blended with the coral red	A
The peacock's tail filled with the copious light	A
Changes its colours likewise when it turns	L2
Wherefore since by some blow of light begot	A
Without such blow these colours can't become	M2
	-
And since the pupil of the eye receives	N2
Within itself one kind of blow when said	A
To feel a white hue then another kind	A
When feeling a black or any other hue	A
And since it matters nothing with what hue	A
The things thou touchest be perchance endowed	A
But rather with what sort of shape equipped	A
'Tis thine to know the atoms need not colour	N
But render forth sensations as of touch	J
That vary with their varied forms	S
Besides	O2
Since special shapes have not a special colour	N
And all formations of the primal germs	P2
Can be of any sheen thou wilt why then	Q2
Are not those objects which are of them made	A
Suffused each kind with colours of every kind	A
For then 'twere meet that ravens as they fly	H2
Should dartle from white pinions a white sheen	Z
Or swans turn black from seed of black or be	N
Of any single varied dye thou wilt	A
	-
Again the more an object's rent to bits	R2
The more thou see its colour fade away	N
Little by little till 'tis quite extinct	A
As happens when the gaudy linen's picked	A
Shred after shred away the purple there	N
Phoenician red most brilliant of all dyes	C
Is lost asunder ravelled thread by thread	A
Hence canst perceive the fragments die away	N
From out their colour long ere they depart	A
Back to the old primordials of things	E2
And last since thou concedest not all bodies	S2
Send out a voice or smell it happens thus	D2
That not to all thou givest sounds and smells	T2
So too since we behold not all with eyes	C
'Tis thine to know some things there are as much	J
Orphaned of colour as others without smell	H2
And reft of sound and those the mind alert	A
No less can apprehend than it can mark	L
The things that lack some other qualities	S2
	-
But think not haply that the primal bodies	S2
Remain despoiled alone of colour so	T
Are they from warmth dissevered and from cold	A
And from hot exhalations and they move	U2
Both sterile of sound and dry of juice and throw	T
Not any odour from their proper bodies	S2
Just as when undertaking to prepare	N
A liquid balm of myrrh and marjoram	M2
And flower of nard which to our nostrils breathes	V2
Odour of nectar first of all behooves	W2
Thou seek as far as find thou may and can	X2
The inodorous olive oil which never sends	Y2
One whiff of scent to nostrils that it may	N
The least debauch and ruin with sharp tang	Z2
The odorous essence with its body mixed	A
And in it seethed And on the same account	A
The primal germs of things must not be thought	A
To furnish colour in begetting things	E2
Nor sound since pow'rless they to send forth aught	A
From out themselves nor any flavour too	A
Nor cold nor exhalation hot or warm	A3
	-
The rest yet since these things are mortal all	H2
The pliant mortal with a body soft	A
The brittle mortal with a crumbling frame	F
The hollow with a porous all must be	N
Disjoined from the primal elements	B3
If still we wish under the world to lay	N
Immortal ground works whereupon may rest	A
The sum of weal and safety lest for thee	N
All things return to nothing utterly	N
Now too whate'er we see possessing sense	C3
Must yet confessedly be stablished all	H2
From elements insensate And those signs	D3
So clear to all and witnessed out of hand	A
Do not refute this dictum nor oppose	E3
But rather themselves do lead us by the hand	A
Compelling belief that living things are born	F2
Of elements insensate as I say	N
Sooth we may see from out the stinking dung	F3
Live worms spring up when after soaking rains	G3
The drenched earth rots and all things change the same	F
Lo change the rivers the fronds the gladsome pastures	H3
Into the cattle the cattle their nature change	I3
Into our bodies and from our body oft	A
Grow strong the powers and bodies of wild beasts	J3
And mighty winged birds Thus Nature changes	K3
All foods to living frames and procreates	L3
From them the senses of live creatures all	H2
In manner about as	M3

Lucretius

Book Ii - Part 04 - Absence Of Secondary Qualities Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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