Book V - Part 07 - Beginnings Of Civilization Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCD EDBFGDDHDIGDJKLGGMGD DGDNGDGOGPOPQDRBBSDT DDDGUCGDCVWXGFYZA2B2 GDGBC2DUD2E2DGHOGDDD DGIF2DGPPGZDGDGG2GDD H2GGSDUDKDE2DGDDFI2D DUJ2GGDDGDDK2DDDFDDD DGDDDDDGL2GGDDD2DGDL F2DGGDM2VGDN2DGDK2DD DDDZDGDO2P2Q2GR2DJ2L DN2Afterwards | A |
When huts they had procured and pelts and fire | B |
And when the woman joined unto the man | C |
Withdrew with him into one dwelling place | D |
- | |
Were known and when they saw an offspring born | E |
From out themselves then first the human race | D |
Began to soften For 'twas now that fire | B |
Rendered their shivering frames less staunch to bear | F |
Under the canopy of the sky the cold | G |
And Love reduced their shaggy hardiness | D |
And children with the prattle and the kiss | D |
Soon broke the parents' haughty temper down | H |
Then too did neighbours 'gin to league as friends | D |
Eager to wrong no more or suffer wrong | I |
And urged for children and the womankind | G |
Mercy of fathers whilst with cries and gestures | D |
They stammered hints how meet it was that all | J |
Should have compassion on the weak And still | K |
Though concord not in every wise could then | L |
Begotten be a good a goodly part | G |
Kept faith inviolate or else mankind | G |
Long since had been unutterably cut off | M |
And propagation never could have brought | G |
The species down the ages | D |
Lest perchance | D |
Concerning these affairs thou ponderest | G |
In silent meditation let me say | D |
'Twas lightning brought primevally to earth | N |
The fire for mortals and from thence hath spread | G |
O'er all the lands the flames of heat For thus | D |
Even now we see so many objects touched | G |
By the celestial flames to flash aglow | O |
When thunderbolt has dowered them with heat | G |
Yet also when a many branched tree | P |
Beaten by winds writhes swaying to and fro | O |
Pressing 'gainst branches of a neighbour tree | P |
There by the power of mighty rub and rub | Q |
Is fire engendered and at times out flares | D |
The scorching heat of flame when boughs do chafe | R |
Against the trunks And of these causes either | B |
May well have given to mortal men the fire | B |
Next food to cook and soften in the flame | S |
The sun instructed since so oft they saw | D |
How objects mellowed when subdued by warmth | T |
And by the raining blows of fiery beams | D |
Through all the fields | D |
And more and more each day | D |
Would men more strong in sense more wise in heart | G |
Teach them to change their earlier mode and life | U |
By fire and new devices Kings began | C |
Cities to found and citadels to set | G |
As strongholds and asylums for themselves | D |
And flocks and fields to portion for each man | C |
After the beauty strength and sense of each | V |
For beauty then imported much and strength | W |
Had its own rights supreme Thereafter wealth | X |
Discovered was and gold was brought to light | G |
Which soon of honour stripped both strong and fair | F |
For men however beautiful in form | Y |
Or valorous will follow in the main | Z |
The rich man's party Yet were man to steer | A2 |
His life by sounder reasoning he'd own | B2 |
Abounding riches if with mind content | G |
He lived by thrift for never as I guess | D |
Is there a lack of little in the world | G |
But men wished glory for themselves and power | B |
Even that their fortunes on foundations firm | C2 |
Might rest forever and that they themselves | D |
The opulent might pass a quiet life | U |
In vain in vain since in the strife to climb | D2 |
On to the heights of honour men do make | E2 |
Their pathway terrible and even when once | D |
They reach them envy like the thunderbolt | G |
At times will smite O hurling headlong down | H |
To murkiest Tartarus in scorn for lo | O |
All summits all regions loftier than the rest | G |
Smoke blasted as by envy's thunderbolts | D |
So better far in quiet to obey | D |
Than to desire chief mastery of affairs | D |
And ownership of empires Be it so | D |
And let the weary sweat their life blood out | G |
All to no end battling in hate along | I |
The narrow path of man's ambition | F2 |
Since all their wisdom is from others' lips | D |
And all they seek is known from what they've heard | G |
And less from what they've thought Nor is this folly | P |
Greater to day nor greater soon to be | P |
Than' twas of old | G |
And therefore kings were slain | Z |
And pristine majesty of golden thrones | D |
And haughty sceptres lay o'erturned in dust | G |
And crowns so splendid on the sovereign heads | D |
Soon bloody under the proletarian feet | G |
Groaned for their glories gone for erst o'er much | G2 |
Dreaded thereafter with more greedy zest | G |
Trampled beneath the rabble heel Thus things | D |
Down to the vilest lees of brawling mobs | D |
Succumbed whilst each man sought unto himself | H2 |
Dominion and supremacy So next | G |
Some wiser heads instructed men to found | G |
The magisterial office and did frame | S |
Codes that they might consent to follow laws | D |
For humankind o'er wearied with a life | U |
Fostered by force was ailing from its feuds | D |
And so the sooner of its own free will | K |
Yielded to laws and strictest codes For since | D |
Each hand made ready in its wrath to take | E2 |
A vengeance fiercer than by man's fair laws | D |
Is now conceded men on this account | G |
Loathed the old life fostered by force 'Tis thence | D |
That fear of punishments defiles each prize | D |
Of wicked days for force and fraud ensnare | F |
Each man around and in the main recoil | I2 |
On him from whence they sprung Not easy 'tis | D |
For one who violates by ugly deeds | D |
The bonds of common peace to pass a life | U |
Composed and tranquil For albeit he 'scape | J2 |
The race of gods and men he yet must dread | G |
'Twill not be hid forever since indeed | G |
So many oft babbling on amid their dreams | D |
Or raving in sickness have betrayed themselves | D |
As stories tell and published at last | G |
Old secrets and the sins | D |
But nature 'twas | D |
Urged men to utter various sounds of tongue | K2 |
And need and use did mould the names of things | D |
About in same wise as the lack speech years | D |
Compel young children unto gesturings | D |
Making them point with finger here and there | F |
At what's before them For each creature feels | D |
By instinct to what use to put his powers | D |
Ere yet the bull calf's scarce begotten horns | D |
Project above his brows with them he 'gins | D |
Enraged to butt and savagely to thrust | G |
But whelps of panthers and the lion's cubs | D |
With claws and paws and bites are at the fray | D |
Already when their teeth and claws be scarce | D |
As yet engendered So again we see | D |
All breeds of winged creatures trust to wings | D |
And from their fledgling pinions seek to get | G |
A fluttering assistance Thus to think | L2 |
That in those days some man apportioned round | G |
To things their names and that from him men learned | G |
Their first nomenclature is foolery | D |
For why could he mark everything by words | D |
And utter the various sounds of tongue what time | D2 |
The rest may be supposed powerless | D |
To do the same And if the rest had not | G |
Already one with other used words | D |
Whence was implanted in the teacher then | L |
Fore knowledge of their use and whence was given | F2 |
To him alone primordial faculty | D |
To know and see in mind what 'twas he willed | G |
Besides one only man could scarce subdue | G |
An overmastered multitude to choose | D |
To get by heart his names of things A task | M2 |
Not easy 'tis in any wise to teach | V |
And to persuade the deaf concerning what | G |
'Tis needful for to do For ne'er would they | D |
Allow nor ne'er in anywise endure | N2 |
Perpetual vain dingdong in their ears | D |
Of spoken sounds unheard before And what | G |
At last in this affair so wondrous is | D |
That human race in whom a voice and tongue | K2 |
Were now in vigour should by divers words | D |
Denote its objects as each divers sense | D |
Might prompt since even the speechless herds aye since | D |
The very generations of wild beasts | D |
Are wont dissimilar and divers sounds | D |
To rouse from in them when there's fear or pain | Z |
And when they burst with joys And this forsooth | D |
'Tis thine to know from plainest facts when first | G |
Huge flabby jowls of mad Molossian hounds | D |
Baring their hard white teeth begin to snarl | O2 |
They threaten with infuriate lips peeled back | P2 |
In sounds far other than with which they bark | Q2 |
And fill with voices all the regions round | G |
And when with fondling tongue they start to lick | R2 |
Their puppies or do toss them round with paws | D |
Feigning with gentle bites to gape and snap | J2 |
They fawn with yelps of voice far other then | L |
Than when alone within the house they bay | D |
Or whimperi | N2 |
Lucretius
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
<< Book Iv - Part 03 - The Senses And Mental Pictures Poem
Book Ii - Part 04 - Absence Of Secondary Qualities Poem>>