Classic and Contemporary Poetry
DE RERUM NATURA: BOOK 2, SELECTION, by TITUS LUCRETIUS CARUS Poet's Biography First Line: Tis pleasant, safely to behold from shore Last Line: Their beames abroad, and bring the darksome soul to day. Alternate Author Name(s): Lucretius Subject(s): Lucretius (99-55 B.c.); Nature; Ships & Shipping; Storms; Translating & Interpreting | ||||||||
'TIS pleasant, safely to behold from shore The rowling Ship, and hear the Tempest roar: Not that anothers pain is our delight; But pains unfelt produce the pleasing sight. 'Tis pleasant also to behold from far The moving Legions mingled in the War: But much more sweet thy lab'ring steps to guide To Vertues heights, with wisdom well supply'd, And all the Magazins of Learning fortifi'd: From thence to look below on humane kind, Bewilder'd in the Maze of Life, and blind: To see vain fools ambitiously contend For Wit and Pow'r; their last endeavours bend T' outshine each other, waste their time and health In search of honour, and pursuit of wealth. O wretched man! in what a mist of Life, Inclos'd with dangers and with noisie strife, He spends his little Span; And overfeeds His cramm'd desires with more than nature needs! For Nature wisely stints our appetite, And craves no more than undisturb'd delight: Which minds unmix'd with cares, and fears, obtain; A Soul serene, a body void of pain. So little this corporeal frame requires; So bounded are our natural desires, That wanting all, and setting pain aside, With bare privation sence is satisfied. If Golden Sconces hang not on the Walls, To light the costly Suppers and the Balls; If the proud Palace shines not with the state Of burnish'd Bowls, and of reflected Plate; If well tun'd Harps, nor the more pleasing sound Of Voices, from the vaulted roofs rebound; Yet on the grass, beneath a poplar shade, By the cool stream our careless limbs are lay'd; With cheaper pleasures innocently bless'd, When the warm Spring with gaudy flow'rs is dress'd. Nor will the rageing Feavours fire abate, With Golden Canopies and Beds of State: But the poor Patient will as soon be sound On the hard mattrass, or the Mother ground. Then since our Bodies are not eas'd the more By Birth, or Pow'r, or Fortunes wealthy store, 'Tis plain, these useless toyes of every kind As little can relieve the lab'ring mind: Unless we could suppose the dreadful sight Of marshall'd Legions moving to the fight, Cou'd, with their sound and terrible array, Expel our fears, and drive the thoughts of death away; But, since the supposition vain appears, Since clinging cares, and trains of inbred fears, Are not with sounds to be affrighted thence, But in the midst of Pomp pursue the Prince, Not aw'd by arms, but in the presence bold, Without respect to Purple, or to Gold; Why shou'd not we these pageantries despise; Whose worth but in our want of reason lies? For life is all in wandring errours led; And just as Children are surpriz'd with dread, And tremble in the dark, so riper years Ev'n in broad daylight are possest with fears; And shake at shadows fanciful and vain, As those which in the breasts of Children reign. These bugbears of the mind, this inward Hell, No rayes of outward sunshine can dispel; But nature and right reason must display Their beames abroad, and bring the darksome soul to day. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ANOTHER TRANSLATOR by RICHARD HOWARD VERSE TRANSLATOR by JOHN FREDERICK NIMS READING THE RUSSIANS by RUTH STONE HAG OF BEARE (CAILLECH BERRI) by ANNE WALDMAN ALICE CORBIN IS GONE by CARL SANDBURG TO HIS WORTHY FRIEND, DOCTOR WITTY by ANDREW MARVELL TO MY HONOURED FRIEND DR.WITTY, CONCERNING HIS TRANSLATION by ANDREW MARVELL THE TRANSLATOR by NOVELLA MATVEYEVA TO MRS. --, ON HER BEAUTIFUL TRANSLATION OF VOITURE'S KISS by THOMAS MOORE DE RERUM NATURA: BOOK 3. AGAINST THE FEAR OF DEATH by TITUS LUCRETIUS CARUS DE RERUM NATURA [ON THE NATURE OF THINGS]: 1, 1-15 (VERSION 2) by TITUS LUCRETIUS CARUS DE RERUM NATURA, LIBER PRIMUS: BOOK 1. LINES 176-209 by TITUS LUCRETIUS CARUS |
|