Book Iii - Part 04 - Folly Of The Fear Of Death Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDECFGHCIJCKLMINO PJQHKRRSTUVWXRYZRRHA 2RB2C2D2B2E2RF2QCCG2 H2RI2J2RK2QL2M2G2N2R O2P2O2Q2R2B2SS2O2RB2 T2U2RV2RW2X2Y2CZ2A3R CCKA3LVRLB3QXLF2C3D3 RA3E3RF3O2C3CG3A3H3A 3I3A3RA3RJ3G2A3A3K3I 3F2QQRL3C3RF2M3F2QRR A3RF2RRA2F2M3N3G2RH3 LF2O3XLTP3N3LLQ3R3S3 Z2C3LLT3LU3LV3LF2LC3 LF2LF2LHHC3FC3

Therefore death to usA
Is nothing nor concerns us in the leastB
Since nature of mind is mortal evermoreC
And just as in the ages gone beforeC
We felt no touch of ill when all sides roundD
To battle came the Carthaginian hostE
And the times shaken by tumultuous warC
Under the aery coasts of arching heavenF
Shuddered and trembled and all humankindG
Doubted to which the empery should fallH
By land and sea thus when we are no moreC
When comes that sundering of our body and soulI
Through which we're fashioned to a single stateJ
Verily naught to us us then no moreC
Can come to pass naught move our senses thenK
No not if earth confounded were with seaL
And sea with heaven But if indeed do feelM
The nature of mind and energy of soulI
After their severance from this body of oursN
Yet nothing 'tis to us who in the bondsO
And wedlock of the soul and body liveP
Through which we're fashioned to a single stateJ
And even if time collected after deathQ
The matter of our frames and set it allH
Again in place as now and if againK
To us the light of life were given O yetR
That process too would not concern us aughtR
When once the self succession of our senseS
Has been asunder broken And now and hereT
Little enough we're busied with the selvesU
We were aforetime nor concerning themV
Suffer a sore distress For shouldst thou gazeW
Backwards across all yesterdays of timeX
The immeasurable thinking how manifoldR
The motions of matter are then couldst thou wellY
Credit this too often these very seedsZ
From which we are to day of old were setR
In the same order as they are to dayR
Yet this we can't to consciousness recallH
Through the remembering mind For there hath beenA2
An interposed pause of life and wideR
Have all the motions wandered everywhereB2
From these our senses For if woe and ailC2
Perchance are toward then the man to whomD2
The bane can happen must himself be thereB2
At that same time But death precludeth thisE2
Forbidding life to him on whom might crowdR
Such irk and care and granted 'tis to knowF2
Nothing for us there is to dread in deathQ
No wretchedness for him who is no moreC
The same estate as if ne'er born beforeC
When death immortal hath ta'en the mortal lifeG2
-
Hence where thou seest a man to grieve becauseH2
When dead he rots with body laid awayR
Or perishes in flames or jaws of beastsI2
Know well he rings not true and that beneathJ2
Still works an unseen sting upon his heartR
However he deny that he believesK2
His shall be aught of feeling after deathQ
For he I fancy grants not what he saysL2
Nor what that presupposes and he failsM2
To pluck himself with all his roots from lifeG2
And cast that self away quite unawaresN2
Feigning that some remainder's left behindR
For when in life one pictures to oneselfO2
His body dead by beasts and vultures tornP2
He pities his state dividing not himselfO2
Therefrom removing not the self enoughQ2
From the body flung away imaginingR2
Himself that body and projecting thereB2
His own sense as he stands beside it henceS
He grieves that he is mortal born nor marksS2
That in true death there is no second selfO2
Alive and able to sorrow for self destroyedR
Or stand lamenting that the self lies thereB2
Mangled or burning For if it an evil isT2
Dead to be jerked about by jaw and fangU2
Of the wild brutes I see not why 'twere notR
Bitter to lie on fires and roast in flamesV2
Or suffocate in honey and reclinedR
On the smooth oblong of an icy slabW2
Grow stiff in cold or sink with load of earthX2
Down crushing from aboveY2
Thee now no moreC
The joyful house and best of wives shall welcomeZ2
Nor little sons run up to snatch their kissesA3
And touch with silent happiness thy heartR
Thou shalt not speed in undertakings moreC
Nor be the warder of thine own no moreC
Poor wretch they say one hostile hour hath ta'enK
Wretchedly from thee all life's many guerdonsA3
But add not yet no longer unto theeL
Remains a remnant of desire for themV
If this they only well perceived with mindR
And followed up with maxims they would freeL
Their state of man from anguish and from fearB3
O even as here thou art aslumber in deathQ
So shalt thou slumber down the rest of timeX
Released from every harrying pang But weL
We have bewept thee with insatiate woeF2
Standing beside whilst on the awful pyreC3
Thou wert made ashes and no day shall takeD3
For us the eternal sorrow from the breastR
But ask the mourner what's the bitternessA3
That man should waste in an eternal griefE3
If after all the thing's but sleep and restR
For when the soul and frame together are sunkF3
In slumber no one then demands his selfO2
Or being Well this sleep may be foreverC3
Without desire of any selfhood moreC
For all it matters unto us asleepG3
Yet not at all do those primordial germsA3
Roam round our members at that time afarH3
From their own motions that produce our sensesA3
Since when he's startled from his sleep a manI3
Collects his senses Death is then to usA3
Much less if there can be a less than thatR
Which is itself a nothing for there comesA3
Hard upon death a scattering more greatR
Of the throng of matter and no man wakes upJ3
On whom once falls the icy pause of lifeG2
This too O often from the soul men sayA3
Along their couches holding of the cupsA3
With faces shaded by fresh wreaths awryK3
Brief is this fruit of joy to paltry manI3
Soon soon departed and thereafter noF2
It may not be recalled As if forsoothQ
It were their prime of evils in great deathQ
To parch poor tongues with thirst and arid droughtR
Or chafe for any lackL3
Once more if NatureC3
Should of a sudden send a voice abroadR
And her own self inveigh against us soF2
Mortal what hast thou of such grave concernM3
That thou indulgest in too sickly plaintsF2
Why this bemoaning and beweeping deathQ
For if thy life aforetime and behindR
To thee was grateful and not all thy goodR
Was heaped as in sieve to flow awayA3
And perish unavailingly why notR
Even like a banqueter depart the hallsF2
Laden with life why not with mind contentR
Take now thou fool thy unafflicted restR
But if whatever thou enjoyed hath beenA2
Lavished and lost and life is now offenceF2
Why seekest more to add which in its turnM3
Will perish foully and fall out in vainN3
O why not rather make an end of lifeG2
Of labour For all I may devise or findR
To pleasure thee is nothing all things areH3
The same forever Though not yet thy bodyL
Wrinkles with years nor yet the frame exhaustsF2
Outworn still things abide the same even ifO3
Thou goest on to conquer all of timeX
With length of days yea if thou never diestL
What were our answer but that Nature hereT
Urges just suit and in her words lays downP3
True cause of action Yet should one complainN3
Riper in years and elder and lamentL
Poor devil his death more sorely than is fitL
Then would she not with greater right on himQ3
Cry out inveighing with a voice more shrillR3
Off with thy tears and choke thy whines buffoonS3
Thou wrinklest after thou hast had the sumZ2
Of the guerdons of life yet since thou cravest everC3
What's not at hand contemning present goodL
That life has slipped away unperfectedL
And unavailing unto thee And nowT3
Or ere thou guessed it death beside thy headL
Stands and before thou canst be going homeU3
Sated and laden with the goodly feastL
But now yield all that's alien to thine ageV3
Up with good grace make room for sons thou mustL
Justly I fancy would she reason thusF2
Justly inveigh and gird since ever the oldL
Outcrowded by the new gives way and everC3
The one thing from the others is repairedL
Nor no man is consigned to the abyssF2
Of Tartarus the black For stuff must beL
That thus the after generations growF2
Though these their life completed follow theeL
And thus like thee are generations allH
Already fallen or some time to fallH
So one thing from another rises everC3
And in fee simple life is given to noneF
But unto all mere usufrC3

Lucretius



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