Classic and Contemporary Poetry
DE RERUM NATURA, LIBER PRIMUS: BOOK 1. LINES 176-209, by TITUS LUCRETIUS CARUS Poet's Biography First Line: Why only in the spring are roses borne Last Line: To all things, which distinguisheth their kind. Alternate Author Name(s): Lucretius Subject(s): Flowers; Roses; Seasons; Spring | ||||||||
Why only in the spring are roses borne? Why ripens summer fruite, and Autumne corne? But that all creatures are, at times disposed By the due confluence of their seeds, disclosd In fitting seasons, when the quickning earth May give her tender ofspring a safe birth; Which if they were of nothing made, would be Suddaine productions, sprung uncerteinely In seasons not their owne, for if there were No principles, which by geniall councells are Kept back from killing seasons, there would need No space for growth, or junctures of the seed. If creatures out of nothing sprung; for soe Men sudenly would from small infants grow Young shoots would trees become, but that all these Are otherwise we know for by degrees From certeine seeds they grow, & still reteine Their owne kind in their growth, which makes it plaine That all the creatures in this manner bred, By their owne matter are encreast and fed. To this, even as without due showers the ground Cannot with new and happie births abound, Soe without food no creatures nature can Encrease their kind, or their owne lives susteine. Wherefore of things, it rather may be sayd As words are out of many letters made, That common bodies doe their beings give Then that ought without principles can live. Lastly why should not nature frame a race Of mighty men, outliving mortall space Who on their feete could travell through the deepe, And with their hands could levell mountains steepe, But that a proper matter is assignd To all things, which distinguisheth their kind. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPRING LEMONADE by TONY HOAGLAND A SPRING SONG by LYMAN WHITNEY ALLEN SPRING'S RETURN by GEORGE LAWRENCE ANDREWS ODE TO SPRING by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD ODE TO SPRING by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD SPRING FLOODS by MAURICE BARING SPRING IN WINTER by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES SPRING ON THE PRAIRIE by HERBERT BATES THE FARMER'S BOY: SPRING by ROBERT BLOOMFIELD 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 |
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