Book Iii - Part 01 - Proem Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AA BCDEFGHIJKLFMNOMPQRS TUVMMHWXYCCZA2B2PJMC 2GCD CCCD2CMOCQME2F2G2H2S CI2J2FK2SL2CCCM2JMN2 DMO2CCMP2Q2R2VCH2MCH 2L2S2MT2U2V2W2CMD2MC SH2CCCMSL2X2CMD2PMKD 2BCCMP2A | |
A | |
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O thou who first uplifted in such dark | B |
So clear a torch aloft who first shed light | C |
Upon the profitable ends of man | D |
O thee I follow glory of the Greeks | E |
And set my footsteps squarely planted now | F |
Even in the impress and the marks of thine | G |
Less like one eager to dispute the palm | H |
More as one craving out of very love | I |
That I may copy thee for how should swallow | J |
Contend with swans or what compare could be | K |
In a race between young kids with tumbling legs | L |
And the strong might of the horse Our father thou | F |
And finder out of truth and thou to us | M |
Suppliest a father's precepts and from out | N |
Those scriven leaves of thine renowned soul | O |
Like bees that sip of all in flowery wolds | M |
We feed upon thy golden sayings all | P |
Golden and ever worthiest endless life | Q |
For soon as ever thy planning thought that sprang | R |
From god like mind begins its loud proclaim | S |
Of nature's courses terrors of the brain | T |
Asunder flee the ramparts of the world | U |
Dispart away and through the void entire | V |
I see the movements of the universe | M |
Rises to vision the majesty of gods | M |
And their abodes of everlasting calm | H |
Which neither wind may shake nor rain cloud splash | W |
Nor snow congealed by sharp frosts may harm | X |
With its white downfall ever unclouded sky | Y |
O'er roofs and laughs with far diffused light | C |
And nature gives to them their all nor aught | C |
May ever pluck their peace of mind away | Z |
But nowhere to my vision rise no more | A2 |
The vaults of Acheron though the broad earth | B2 |
Bars me no more from gazing down o'er all | P |
Which under our feet is going on below | J |
Along the void O here in these affairs | M |
Some new divine delight and trembling awe | C2 |
Takes hold through me that thus by power of thine | G |
Nature so plain and manifest at last | C |
Hath been on every side laid bare to man | D |
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And since I've taught already of what sort | C |
The seeds of all things are and how distinct | C |
In divers forms they flit of own accord | C |
Stirred with a motion everlasting on | D2 |
And in what mode things be from them create | C |
Now after such matters should my verse meseems | M |
Make clear the nature of the mind and soul | O |
And drive that dread of Acheron without | C |
Headlong which so confounds our human life | Q |
Unto its deeps pouring o'er all that is | M |
The black of death nor leaves not anything | E2 |
To prosper a liquid and unsullied joy | F2 |
For as to what men sometimes will affirm | G2 |
That more than Tartarus the realm of death | H2 |
They fear diseases and a life of shame | S |
And know the substance of the soul is blood | C |
Or rather wind if haply thus their whim | I2 |
And so need naught of this our science then | J2 |
Thou well may'st note from what's to follow now | F |
That more for glory do they braggart forth | K2 |
Than for belief For mark these very same | S |
Exiles from country fugitives afar | L2 |
From sight of men with charges foul attaint | C |
Abased with every wretchedness they yet | C |
Live and where'er the wretches come they yet | C |
Make the ancestral sacrifices there | M2 |
Butcher the black sheep and to gods below | J |
Offer the honours and in bitter case | M |
Turn much more keenly to religion | N2 |
Wherefore it's surer testing of a man | D |
In doubtful perils mark him as he is | M |
Amid adversities for then alone | O2 |
Are the true voices conjured from his breast | C |
The mask off stripped reality behind | C |
And greed again and the blind lust of honours | M |
Which force poor wretches past the bounds of law | P2 |
And oft allies and ministers of crime | Q2 |
To push through nights and days of the hugest toil | R2 |
To rise untrammelled to the peaks of power | V |
These wounds of life in no mean part are kept | C |
Festering and open by this fright of death | H2 |
For ever we see fierce Want and foul Disgrace | M |
Dislodged afar from secure life and sweet | C |
Like huddling Shapes before the doors of death | H2 |
And whilst from these men wish to scape afar | L2 |
Driven by false terror and afar remove | S2 |
With civic blood a fortune they amass | M |
They double their riches greedy heapers up | T2 |
Of corpse on corpse they have a cruel laugh | U2 |
For the sad burial of a brother born | V2 |
And hatred and fear of tables of their kin | W2 |
Likewise through this same terror envy oft | C |
Makes them to peak because before their eyes | M |
That man is lordly that man gazed upon | D2 |
Who walks begirt with honour glorious | M |
Whilst they in filth and darkness roll around | C |
Some perish away for statues and a name | S |
And oft to that degree from fright of death | H2 |
Will hate of living and beholding light | C |
Take hold on humankind that they inflict | C |
Their own destruction with a gloomy heart | C |
Forgetful that this fear is font of cares | M |
This fear the plague upon their sense of shame | S |
And this that breaks the ties of comradry | L2 |
And oversets all reverence and faith | X2 |
Mid direst slaughter For long ere to day | C |
Often were traitors to country and dear parents | M |
Through quest to shun the realms of Acheron | D2 |
For just as children tremble and fear all | P |
In the viewless dark so even we at times | M |
Dread in the light so many things that be | K |
No whit more fearsome than what children feign | D2 |
Shuddering will be upon them in the dark | B |
This terror then this darkness of the mind | C |
Not sunrise with its flaring spokes of light | C |
Nor glittering arrows of morning sun disperse | M |
But only Nature's aspect and her law | P2 |
Lucretius
(1)
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