Lucretius

Venus that beneath the gliding stars Makest to teem the many-voyaged main And fruitful lands — for all of living things Through thee alone are evermore conceived, Through thee are risen to visit the great sun — Before thee, Goddess, and thy coming on, Flee stormy wind and massy cloud away, For thee the daedal Earth bears scented flowers, For thee waters of the unvexed deep Smile, and the… Read the rest of this passage →

WHO can build with puissant breast a song Worthy the majesty of these great finds? Or who in words so strong that he can frame The fit laudations for deserts of him Who left us heritors of such vast prizes, By his own breast discovered and sought out? — There shall be none, methinks, of mortal stock. For if must needs be named for him the name Demanded by the now known majesty Of these… Read the rest of this passage →

O thou who first uplifted in such dark So clear a torch aloft, who first shed light Upon the profitable ends of man, O thee I follow, glory of the Greeks, And set my footsteps squarely planted now Even in the impress and the marks of thine — Less like one eager to dispute the palm, More as one craving out of very love That I may copy thee! — for how should swallow Contend with swans or… Read the rest of this passage →

I wander afield, thriving in sturdy thought, Through unpathed haunts of the Pierides, Trodden by step of none before. I joy To come on undefiled fountains there, To drain them deep; I joy to pluck new flowers, To seek for this my head a signal crown From regions where the Muses never yet Have garlanded the temples of a man: First, since I teach concerning mighty things, And go right on… Read the rest of this passage →

Tis sweet, when, down the mighty main, the winds Roll up its waste of waters, from the land To watch another’s labouring anguish far, Not that we joyously delight that man Should thus be smitten, but because ’tis sweet To mark what evils we ourselves be spared; ’Tis sweet, again, to view the mighty strife Of armies embattled yonder o’er the plains, Ourselves no sharers in the peril; but… Read the rest of this passage →

Athens first, the glorious in name, That whilom gave to hapless sons of men The sheaves of harvest, and re-ordered life, And decreed laws; and she the first that gave Life its sweet solaces, when she begat A man of heart so wise, who whilom poured All wisdom forth from his truth-speaking mouth; The glory of whom, though dead, is yet to-day, Because of those discoveries divine Renowned of… Read the rest of this passage →