Book V - Part 01 - Proem Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGCHHIJKLJMNOHP QRSTIUVICIWTXIYZX YYZYA2XYB2YYC2IRID2X YYIXIIYYE2F2YIDYG2YX H2I| O who can build with puissant breast a song | A |
| Worthy the majesty of these great finds | B |
| Or who in words so strong that he can frame | C |
| The fit laudations for deserts of him | D |
| Who left us heritors of such vast prizes | E |
| By his own breast discovered and sought out | F |
| There shall be none methinks of mortal stock | G |
| For if must needs be named for him the name | C |
| Demanded by the now known majesty | H |
| Of these high matters then a god was he | H |
| Hear me illustrious Memmius a god | I |
| Who first and chief found out that plan of life | J |
| Which now is called philosophy and who | K |
| By cunning craft out of such mighty waves | L |
| Out of such mighty darkness moored life | J |
| In havens so serene in light so clear | M |
| Compare those old discoveries divine | N |
| Of others lo according to the tale | O |
| Ceres established for mortality | H |
| The grain and Bacchus juice of vine born grape | P |
| Though life might yet without these things abide | Q |
| Even as report saith now some peoples live | R |
| But man's well being was impossible | S |
| Without a breast all free Wherefore the more | T |
| That man doth justly seem to us a god | I |
| From whom sweet solaces of life afar | U |
| Distributed o'er populous domains | V |
| Now soothe the minds of men But if thou thinkest | I |
| Labours of Hercules excel the same | C |
| Much farther from true reasoning thou farest | I |
| For what could hurt us now that mighty maw | W |
| Of Nemeaean Lion or what the Boar | T |
| Who bristled in Arcadia Or again | X |
| O what could Cretan Bull or Hydra pest | I |
| Of Lerna fenced with vipers venomous | Y |
| Or what the triple breasted power of her | Z |
| The three fold Geryon | X |
| - | |
| The sojourners in the Stymphalian fens | Y |
| So dreadfully offend us or the Steeds | Y |
| Of Thracian Diomedes breathing fire | Z |
| From out their nostrils off along the zones | Y |
| Bistonian and Ismarian And the Snake | A2 |
| The dread fierce gazer guardian of the golden | X |
| And gleaming apples of the Hesperides | Y |
| Coiled round the tree trunk with tremendous bulk | B2 |
| O what again could he inflict on us | Y |
| Along the Atlantic shore and wastes of sea | Y |
| Where neither one of us approacheth nigh | C2 |
| Nor no barbarian ventures And the rest | I |
| Of all those monsters slain even if alive | R |
| Unconquered still what injury could they do | I |
| None as I guess For so the glutted earth | D2 |
| Swarms even now with savage beasts even now | X |
| Is filled with anxious terrors through the woods | Y |
| And mighty mountains and the forest deeps | Y |
| Quarters 'tis ours in general to avoid | I |
| But lest the breast be purged what conflicts then | X |
| What perils must bosom in our own despite | I |
| O then how great and keen the cares of lust | I |
| That split the man distraught How great the fears | Y |
| And lo the pride grim greed and wantonness | Y |
| How great the slaughters in their train and lo | E2 |
| Debaucheries and every breed of sloth | F2 |
| Therefore that man who subjugated these | Y |
| And from the mind expelled by words indeed | I |
| Not arms O shall it not be seemly him | D |
| To dignify by ranking with the gods | Y |
| And all the more since he was wont to give | G2 |
| Concerning the immortal gods themselves | Y |
| Many pronouncements with a tongue divine | X |
| And to unfold by his pronouncements all | H2 |
| The nature of the world | I |
Lucretius
(1)
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