Book Vi - Part 02 - Great Meteorological Phenomena, Etc Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHAIJKLMNOPQRS TUVTWXVYDMTZTA2AB2C2 TTTD2YE2TTKTF2G2H2TT TI2YJ2K2L2M2KTTXN2O2 P2O2E2MDC2TTQ2R2L2TM TS2T2O2IU2TV2TAW2MX2 Y2DZ2X2TM2X2X2A3X2X2 E2X2XX2X2BX2X2BXTTX2 X2Z2X2DX2X2B2A3X2B3X 2X2X2A3X2DC3Z2D3X2X2 X2X2AXX2Z2X2X2E3X2X2 DXNX2A3 X2DX2DAZ2X2X2X2X2X2X 2X2IX2AF3X2Z2X2X2E2X 2X2X2And so in first place then | A |
With thunder are shaken the blue deeps of heaven | B |
Because the ethereal clouds scudding aloft | C |
Together clash what time 'gainst one another | D |
The winds are battling For never a sound there come | E |
From out the serene regions of the sky | F |
But wheresoever in a host more dense | G |
The clouds foregather thence more often comes | H |
A crash with mighty rumbling And again | A |
Clouds cannot be of so condensed a frame | I |
As stones and timbers nor again so fine | J |
As mists and flying smoke for then perforce | K |
They'd either fall borne down by their brute weight | L |
Like stones or like the smoke they'd powerless be | M |
To keep their mass or to retain within | N |
Frore snows and storms of hail And they give forth | O |
O'er skiey levels of the spreading world | P |
A sound on high as linen awning stretched | Q |
O'er mighty theatres gives forth at times | R |
A cracking roar when much 'tis beaten about | S |
Betwixt the poles and cross beams Sometimes too | T |
Asunder rent by wanton gusts it raves | U |
And imitates the tearing sound of sheets | V |
Of paper even this kind of noise thou mayst | T |
In thunder hear or sound as when winds whirl | W |
With lashings and do buffet about in air | X |
A hanging cloth and flying paper sheets | V |
For sometimes too it chances that the clouds | Y |
Cannot together crash head on but rather | D |
Move side wise and with motions contrary | M |
Graze each the other's body without speed | T |
From whence that dry sound grateth on our ears | Z |
So long drawn out until the clouds have passed | T |
From out their close positions | A2 |
And again | A |
In following wise all things seem oft to quake | B2 |
At shock of heavy thunder and mightiest walls | C2 |
Of the wide reaches of the upper world | T |
There on the instant to have sprung apart | T |
Riven asunder what time a gathered blast | T |
Of the fierce hurricane hath all at once | D2 |
Twisted its way into a mass of clouds | Y |
And there enclosed ever more and more | E2 |
Compelleth by its spinning whirl the cloud | T |
To grow all hollow with a thickened crust | T |
Surrounding for thereafter when the force | K |
And the keen onset of the wind have weakened | T |
That crust lo then the cloud to split in twain | F2 |
Gives forth a hideous crash with bang and boom | G2 |
No marvel this since oft a bladder small | H2 |
Filled up with air will when of sudden burst | T |
Give forth a like large sound | T |
There's reason too | T |
Why clouds make sounds as through them blow the winds | I2 |
We see borne down the sky oft shapes of clouds | Y |
Rough edged or branched many forky ways | J2 |
And 'tis the same as when the sudden flaws | K2 |
Of northwest wind through the dense forest blow | L2 |
Making the leaves to sough and limbs to crash | M2 |
It happens too at times that roused force | K |
Of the fierce hurricane to rends the cloud | T |
Breaking right through it by a front assault | T |
For what a blast of wind may do up there | X |
Is manifest from facts when here on earth | N2 |
A blast more gentle yet uptwists tall trees | O2 |
And sucks them madly from their deepest roots | P2 |
Besides among the clouds are waves and these | O2 |
Give as they roughly break a rumbling roar | E2 |
As when along deep streams or the great sea | M |
Breaks the loud surf It happens too whenever | D |
Out from one cloud into another falls | C2 |
The fiery energy of thunderbolt | T |
That straightaway the cloud if full of wet | T |
Extinguishes the fire with mighty noise | Q2 |
As iron white from the hot furnaces | R2 |
Sizzles when speedily we've plunged its glow | L2 |
Down the cold water Further if a cloud | T |
More dry receive the fire 'twill suddenly | M |
Kindle to flame and burn with monstrous sound | T |
As if a flame with whirl of winds should range | S2 |
Along the laurel tressed mountains far | T2 |
Upburning with its vast assault those trees | O2 |
Nor is there aught that in the crackling flame | I |
Consumes with sound more terrible to man | U2 |
Than Delphic laurel of Apollo lord | T |
Oft too the multitudinous crash of ice | V2 |
And down pour of swift hail gives forth a sound | T |
Among the mighty clouds on high for when | A |
The wind hath packed them close each mountain mass | W2 |
Of rain cloud there congealed utterly | M |
And mixed with hail stones breaks and booms | X2 |
- | |
Likewise it lightens when the clouds have struck | Y2 |
By their collision forth the seeds of fire | D |
As if a stone should smite a stone or steel | Z2 |
For light then too leaps forth and fire then scatters | X2 |
The shining sparks But with our ears we get | T |
The thunder after eyes behold the flash | M2 |
Because forever things arrive the ears | X2 |
More tardily than the eyes as thou mayst see | X2 |
From this example too when markest thou | A3 |
Some man far yonder felling a great tree | X2 |
With double edged ax it comes to pass | X2 |
Thine eye beholds the swinging stroke before | E2 |
The blow gives forth a sound athrough thine ears | X2 |
Thus also we behold the flashing ere | X |
We hear the thunder which discharged is | X2 |
At same time with the fire and by same cause | X2 |
Born of the same collision | B |
In following wise | X2 |
The clouds suffuse with leaping light the lands | X2 |
And the storm flashes with tremulous elan | B |
When the wind hath invaded a cloud and whirling there | X |
Hath wrought as I have shown above the cloud | T |
Into a hollow with a thickened crust | T |
It becomes hot of own velocity | X2 |
Just as thou seest how motion will o'erheat | X2 |
And set ablaze all objects verily | Z2 |
A leaden ball hurtling through length of space | X2 |
Even melts Therefore when this same wind a fire | D |
Hath split black cloud it scatters the fire seeds | X2 |
Which so to say have been pressed out by force | X2 |
Of sudden from the cloud and these do make | B2 |
The pulsing flashes of flame thence followeth | A3 |
The detonation which attacks our ears | X2 |
More tardily than aught which comes along | B3 |
Unto the sight of eyeballs This takes place | X2 |
As know thou mayst at times when clouds are dense | X2 |
And one upon the other piled aloft | X2 |
With wonderful upheavings nor be thou | A3 |
Deceived because we see how broad their base | X2 |
From underneath and not how high they tower | D |
For make thine observations at a time | C3 |
When winds shall bear athwart the horizon's blue | Z2 |
Clouds like to mountain ranges moving on | D3 |
Or when about the sides of mighty peaks | X2 |
Thou seest them one upon the other massed | X2 |
And burdening downward anchored in high repose | X2 |
With the winds sepulchred on all sides round | X2 |
Then canst thou know their mighty masses then | A |
Canst view their caverns as if builded there | X |
Of beetling crags which when the hurricanes | X2 |
In gathered storm have filled utterly | Z2 |
Then prisoned in clouds they rave around | X2 |
With mighty roarings and within those dens | X2 |
Bluster like savage beasts and now from here | E3 |
And now from there send growlings through the clouds | X2 |
And seeking an outlet whirl themselves about | X2 |
And roll from 'mid the clouds the seeds of fire | D |
And heap them multitudinously there | X |
And in the hollow furnaces within | N |
Wheel flame around until from bursted cloud | X2 |
In forky flashes they have gleamed forth | A3 |
- | |
Again from following cause it comes to pass | X2 |
That yon swift golden hue of liquid fire | D |
Darts downward to the earth because the clouds | X2 |
Themselves must hold abundant seeds of fire | D |
For when they be without all moisture then | A |
They be for most part of a flamy hue | Z2 |
And a resplendent And indeed they must | X2 |
Even from the light of sun unto themselves | X2 |
Take multitudinous seeds and so perforce | X2 |
Redden and pour their bright fires all abroad | X2 |
And therefore when the wind hath driven and thrust | X2 |
Hath forced and squeezed into one spot these clouds | X2 |
They pour abroad the seeds of fire pressed out | X2 |
Which make to flash these colours of the flame | I |
Likewise it lightens also when the clouds | X2 |
Grow rare and thin along the sky for when | A |
The wind with gentle touch unravels them | F3 |
And breaketh asunder as they move those seeds | X2 |
Which make the lightnings must by nature fall | Z2 |
At such an hour the horizon lightens round | X2 |
Without the hideous terror of dread noise | X2 |
And skiey uproar | E2 |
To proceed apace | X2 |
What sort of nature thunderbolts posses | X2 |
Is by their strokes made manifest | X2 |
Lucretius
(1)
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