Book Iv - Part 04 - Some Vital Functions Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDBEFGHICJBKLMNOPQ RKSTQIUVIWXYZUA2B2BC 2OD2BE2F2G2H2I2J2JNI K2L2M2D2FL2FN2O2P2Q2 F2R2ES2RT2U2BV2W2V2X 2V2JM2Y2NZ2A3M2IB3W2 X2C3M2I2D3QI2IUX2IM2 OUI2IFX2E3I2F3I2L2FI 2IG3G3I2H3M2IRI2I3IV VX2FIOJ3K3F3L3M3OI2I 2O L2IN3F3I2I2I2QII2O3I 2W2P3I2I2I2I2L2Q3I2I 2K3Q3X2R3H3I2S3T3I2I 2V2I2I2QI2U3L2I2I2IV 3I2NW3I2A2X3X2I2I2I2In these affairs | A |
We crave that thou wilt passionately flee | B |
The one offence and anxiously wilt shun | C |
The error of presuming the clear lights | D |
Of eyes created were that we might see | B |
Or thighs and knees aprop upon the feet | E |
Thuswise can bended be that we might step | F |
With goodly strides ahead or forearms joined | G |
Unto the sturdy uppers or serving hands | H |
On either side were given that we might do | I |
Life's own demands All such interpretation | C |
Is aft for fore with inverse reasoning | J |
Since naught is born in body so that we | B |
May use the same but birth engenders use | K |
No seeing ere the lights of eyes were born | L |
No speaking ere the tongue created was | M |
But origin of tongue came long before | N |
Discourse of words and ears created were | O |
Much earlier than any sound was heard | P |
And all the members so meseems were there | Q |
Before they got their use and therefore they | R |
Could not be gendered for the sake of use | K |
But contrariwise contending in the fight | S |
With hand to hand and rending of the joints | T |
And fouling of the limbs with gore was there | Q |
O long before the gleaming spears ere flew | I |
And Nature prompted man to shun a wound | U |
Before the left arm by the aid of art | V |
Opposed the shielding targe And verily | I |
Yielding the weary body to repose | W |
Far ancienter than cushions of soft beds | X |
And quenching thirst is earlier than cups | Y |
These objects therefore which for use and life | Z |
Have been devised can be conceived as found | U |
For sake of using But apart from such | A2 |
Are all which first were born and afterwards | B2 |
Gave knowledge of their own utility | B |
Chief in which sort we note the senses limbs | C2 |
Wherefore again 'tis quite beyond thy power | O |
To hold that these could thus have been create | D2 |
For office of utility | B |
Likewise | E2 |
'Tis nothing strange that all the breathing creatures | F2 |
Seek even by nature of their frame their food | G2 |
Yes since I've taught thee that from off the things | H2 |
Stream and depart innumerable bodies | I2 |
In modes innumerable too but most | J2 |
Must be the bodies streaming from the living | J |
Which bodies vexed by motion evermore | N |
Are through the mouth exhaled innumerable | I |
When weary creatures pant or through the sweat | K2 |
Squeezed forth innumerable from deep within | L2 |
Thus body rarefies so undermined | M2 |
In all its nature and pain attends its state | D2 |
And so the food is taken to underprop | F |
The tottering joints and by its interfusion | L2 |
To re create their powers and there stop up | F |
The longing open mouthed through limbs and veins | N2 |
For eating And the moist no less departs | O2 |
Into all regions that demand the moist | P2 |
And many heaped up particles of hot | Q2 |
Which cause such burnings in these bellies of ours | F2 |
The liquid on arriving dissipates | R2 |
And quenches like a fire that parching heat | E |
No longer now can scorch the frame And so | S2 |
Thou seest how panting thirst is washed away | R |
From off our body how the hunger pang | T2 |
It too appeased | U2 |
Now how it comes that we | B |
Whene'er we wish can step with strides ahead | V2 |
And how 'tis given to move our limbs about | W2 |
And what device is wont to push ahead | V2 |
This the big load of our corporeal frame | X2 |
I'll say to thee do thou attend what's said | V2 |
I say that first some idol films of walking | J |
Into our mind do fall and smite the mind | M2 |
As said before Thereafter will arises | Y2 |
For no one starts to do a thing before | N |
The intellect previsions what it wills | Z2 |
And what it there pre visioneth depends | A3 |
On what that image is When therefore mind | M2 |
Doth so bestir itself that it doth will | I |
To go and step along it strikes at once | B3 |
That energy of soul that's sown about | W2 |
In all the body through the limbs and frame | X2 |
And this is easy of performance since | C3 |
The soul is close conjoined with the mind | M2 |
Next soul in turn strikes body and by degrees | I2 |
Thus the whole mass is pushed along and moved | D3 |
Then too the body rarefies and air | Q |
Forsooth as ever of such nimbleness | I2 |
Comes on and penetrates aboundingly | I |
Through opened pores and thus is sprinkled round | U |
Unto all smallest places in our frame | X2 |
Thus then by these twain factors severally | I |
Body is borne like ship with oars and wind | M2 |
Nor yet in these affairs is aught for wonder | O |
That particles so fine can whirl around | U |
So great a body and turn this weight of ours | I2 |
For wind so tenuous with its subtle body | I |
Yet pushes driving on the mighty ship | F |
Of mighty bulk one hand directs the same | X2 |
Whatever its momentum and one helm | E3 |
Whirls it around whither ye please and loads | I2 |
Many and huge are moved and hoisted high | F3 |
By enginery of pulley blocks and wheels | I2 |
With but light strain | L2 |
Now by what modes this sleep | F |
Pours through our members waters of repose | I2 |
And frees the breast from cares of mind I'll tell | I |
In verses sweeter than they many are | G3 |
Even as the swan's slight note is better far | G3 |
Than that dispersed clamour of the cranes | I2 |
Among the south wind's aery clouds Do thou | H3 |
Give me sharp ears and a sagacious mind | M2 |
That thou mayst not deny the things to be | I |
Whereof I'm speaking nor depart away | R |
With bosom scorning these the spoken truths | I2 |
Thyself at fault unable to perceive | I3 |
Sleep chiefly comes when energy of soul | I |
Hath now been scattered through the frame and part | V |
Expelled abroad and gone away and part | V |
Crammed back and settling deep within the frame | X2 |
Whereafter then our loosened members droop | F |
For doubt is none that by the work of soul | I |
Exist in us this sense and when by slumber | O |
That sense is thwarted we are bound to think | J3 |
The soul confounded and expelled abroad | K3 |
Yet not entirely else the frame would lie | F3 |
Drenched in the everlasting cold of death | L3 |
In sooth where no one part of soul remained | M3 |
Lurking among the members even as fire | O |
Lurks buried under many ashes whence | I2 |
Could sense amain rekindled be in members | I2 |
As flame can rise anew from unseen fire | O |
- | |
By what devices this strange state and new | L2 |
May be occasioned and by what the soul | I |
Can be confounded and the frame grow faint | N3 |
I will untangle see to it thou that I | F3 |
Pour forth my words not unto empty winds | I2 |
In first place body on its outer parts | I2 |
Since these are touched by neighbouring aery gusts | I2 |
Must there be thumped and strook by blows of air | Q |
Repeatedly And therefore almost all | I |
Are covered either with hides or else with shells | I2 |
Or with the horny callus or with bark | O3 |
Yet this same air lashes their inner parts | I2 |
When creatures draw a breath or blow it out | W2 |
Wherefore since body thus is flogged alike | P3 |
Upon the inside and the out and blows | I2 |
Come in upon us through the little pores | I2 |
Even inward to our body's primal parts | I2 |
And primal elements there comes to pass | I2 |
By slow degrees along our members then | L2 |
A kind of overthrow for then confounded | Q3 |
Are those arrangements of the primal germs | I2 |
Of body and of mind It comes to pass | I2 |
That next a part of soul's expelled abroad | K3 |
A part retreateth in recesses hid | Q3 |
A part too scattered all about the frame | X2 |
Cannot become united nor engage | R3 |
In interchange of motion Nature now | H3 |
So hedges off approaches and the paths | I2 |
And thus the sense its motions all deranged | S3 |
Retires down deep within and since there's naught | T3 |
As 'twere to prop the frame the body weakens | I2 |
And all the members languish and the arms | I2 |
And eyelids fall and as ye lie abed | V2 |
Even there the houghs will sag and loose their powers | I2 |
Again sleep follows after food because | I2 |
The food produces same result as air | Q |
Whilst being scattered round through all the veins | I2 |
And much the heaviest is that slumber which | U3 |
Full or fatigued thou takest since 'tis then | L2 |
That the most bodies disarrange themselves | I2 |
Bruised by labours hard And in same wise | I2 |
This three fold change a forcing of the soul | I |
Down deeper more a casting forth of it | V3 |
A moving more divided in its parts | I2 |
And scattered more | N |
And to whate'er pursuit | W3 |
A man most clings absorbed or what the affairs | I2 |
On which we theretofore have tarried much | A2 |
And mind hath strained upon the more we seem | X3 |
In sleep not rarely to go at the same | X2 |
The lawyers seem to plead and cite decrees | I2 |
Commanders they to fight and go at frays | I2 |
Sailors | I2 |
Lucretius
(1)
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