Book V - Part 03 - The World Is Not Eternal Poem Rhyme Scheme

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And first	A
Since body of earth and water air's light breath	B
And fiery exhalations of which four	C
This sum of things is seen to be compact	D
So all have birth and perishable frame	E
Thus the whole nature of the world itself	F
Must be conceived as perishable too	G
For verily those things of which we see	H
The parts and members to have birth in time	I
And perishable shapes those same we mark	J
To be invariably born in time	I
And born to die And therefore when I see	H
The mightiest members and the parts of this	K
Our world consumed and begot again	L
'Tis mine to know that also sky above	M
And earth beneath began of old in time	I
And shall in time go under to disaster	N
And lest in these affairs thou deemest me	H
To have seized upon this point by sleight to serve	O
My own caprice because I have assumed	P
That earth and fire are mortal things indeed	Q
And have not doubted water and the air	R
Both perish too and have affirmed the same	E
To be again begotten and wax big	S
Mark well the argument in first place lo	T
Some certain parts of earth grievously parched	U
By unremitting suns and trampled on	V
By a vast throng of feet exhale abroad	W
A powdery haze and flying clouds of dust	X
Which the stout winds disperse in the whole air	R
A part moreover of her sod and soil	Y
Is summoned to inundation by the rains	Z
And rivers graze and gouge the banks away	A2
Besides whatever takes a part its own	B2
In fostering and increasing aught	X
	-
Is rendered back and since beyond a doubt	X
Earth the all mother is beheld to be	H
Likewise the common sepulchre of things	C2
Therefore thou seest her minished of her plenty	H
And then again augmented with new growth	D2
	-
And for the rest that sea and streams and springs	C2
Forever with new waters overflow	T
And that perennially the fluids well	E2
Needeth no words the mighty flux itself	F
Of multitudinous waters round about	X
Declareth this But whatso water first	X
Streams up is ever straightway carried off	F2
And thus it comes to pass that all in all	G2
There is no overflow in part because	H2
The burly winds that over sweep amain	B2
And skiey sun that with his rays dissolves	I2
Do minish the level seas in part because	H2
The water is diffused underground	X
Through all the lands The brine is filtered off	F2
And then the liquid stuff seeps back again	B2
And all re gathers at the river heads	J2
Whence in fresh water currents on it flows	K2
Over the lands adown the channels which	L2
Were cleft erstwhile and erstwhile bore along	M2
The liquid footed floods	N2
Now then of air	R
I'll speak which hour by hour in all its body	H
Is changed innumerably For whatso'er	R
Streams up in dust or vapour off of things	C2
The same is all and always borne along	M2
Into the mighty ocean of the air	R
And did not air in turn restore to things	C2
Bodies and thus recruit them as they stream	O2
All things by this time had resolved been	B2
And changed into air Therefore it never	R
Ceases to be engendered off of things	C2
And to return to things since verily	G2
In constant flux do all things stream	O2
Likewise	P2
The abounding well spring of the liquid light	X
The ethereal sun doth flood the heaven o'er	R
With constant flux of radiance ever new	B2
And with fresh light supplies the place of light	X
Upon the instant For whatever effulgence	P2
Hath first streamed off no matter where it falls	P2
Is lost unto the sun And this 'tis thine	B2
To know from these examples soon as clouds	P2
Have first begun to under pass the sun	B2
And as it were to rend the days of light	X
In twain at once the lower part of them	Q2
Is lost entire and earth is overcast	X
Where'er the thunderheads are rolled along	M2
So know thou mayst that things forever need	X
A fresh replenishment of gleam and glow	G2
And each effulgence foremost flashed forth	R2
Perisheth one by one Nor otherwise	P2
Can things be seen in sunlight lest alway	A2
The fountain head of light supply new light	X
Indeed your earthly beacons of the night	X
The hanging lampions and the torches bright	X
With darting gleams and dense with livid soot	X
Do hurry in like manner to supply	G2
With ministering heat new light amain	B2
Are all alive to quiver with their fires	P2
Are so alive that thus the light ne'er leaves	P2
The spots it shines on as if rent in twain	B2
So speedily is its destruction veiled	X
By the swift birth of flame from all the fires	P2
Thus then we must suppose that sun and moon	B2
And stars dart forth their light from under births	P2
Ever and ever new and whatso flames	P2
First rise do perish always one by one	B2
Lest haply thou shouldst think they each endure	R
Inviolable	G2
Again perceivest not	X
How stones are also conquered by Time	I
Not how the lofty towers ruin down	B2
And boulders crumble Not how shrines of gods	P2
And idols crack outworn Nor how indeed	X
The holy Influence hath yet no power	R
There to postpone the Terminals of Fate	X
Or headway make 'gainst Nature's fixed decrees	P2
Again behold we not the monuments	P2
Of heroes now in ruins asking us	P2
In their turn likewise if we don't believe	S2
They also age with eld Behold we not	X
The rended basalt ruining amain	B2
Down from the lofty mountains powerless	P2
To dure and dree the mighty forces there	R
Of finite time for they would never fall	G2
Rended asudden if from infinite Past	X
They had prevailed against all engin'ries	P2
Of the assaulting aeons with no crash	T2
Again now look at This which round above	M
Contains the whole earth in its one embrace	P2
If from itself it procreates all things	P2
As some men tell and takes them to itself	F
When once destroyed entirely must it be	H
Of mortal birth and body for whate'er	R
From out itself giveth to other things	P2
Increase and food the same perforce must be	H
Minished and then recruited when it takes	P2
Things back into itself	F
Besides all this	P2
If there had been no origin in birth	U2
Of lands and sky and they had ever been	B2
The everlasting why ere Theban war	R
And obsequies of Troy have other bards	P2
Not also chanted other high affairs	P2
Whither have sunk so oft so many deeds	P2
Of heroes Why do those deeds live no more	R
Ingrafted in eternal monuments	P2
Of glory Verily I guess because	P2
The Sum is new and of a recent date	X
The nature of our universe and had	X
Not long ago its own exordium	I
Wherefore even now some arts are being still	G2
Refined still increased now unto ships	P2
Is being added many a new device	P2
And but the other day musician folk	V2
Gave birth to melic sounds of organing	V2
And then this nature this account of things	P2
Hath been discovered latterly and I	G2
Myself have been discovered only now	B2
As first among the first able to turn	B2
The same into ancestral Roman speech	W2
Yet if percase thou deemest that ere this	P2
Existed all things even the same but that	X
Perished the cycles of the human race	P2
In fiery exhalations or cities fell	G2
By some tremendous quaking of the world	X
Or rivers in fury after constant rains	P2
Had plunged forth across the lands of earth	U2
And whelmed the towns then all the more must thou	B2
Confess defeated by the argument	X
That there shall be annihilation too	B2
Of lands and sky For at a time when things	P2
Were being taxed by maladies so great	X
And so great perils if some cause more fell	G2
Had then assailed them far and wide they would	X
Have gone to disaster and supreme collapse	P2
And by no other reasoning are we	H
Seen to be mortal save that all of us	P2
Sicken in turn with those same maladies	P2
With which have sickened in the past those men	B2
Whom Nature hath removed from life	X2
Again	B2
Whatever abides eternal must indeed	X
Either repel all strokes because 'tis made	X
Of solid body and permit no entrance	P2
Of aught with power to sunder from within	B2
The parts compact as are those seeds of stuff	Y2
Whose nature we've exhibited before	R
Or else be able to endure through time	I
For this because they are from blows exempt	X
As is the void the which abides untouched	X
Unsmit by any stroke or else because	P2
There is no room around whereto things can	B2
As 'twere depart in dissolution all	G2
Even as the sum of sums eterna	B2

Lucretius

Book V - Part 03 - The World Is Not Eternal Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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