Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DE RERUM NATURA: BOOK 5, SELECTION, by TITUS LUCRETIUS CARUS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DE RERUM NATURA: BOOK 5, SELECTION, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Thus like a sailor by the tempest hurled
Last Line: And nature's lavish hand supplies their common wants.
Alternate Author Name(s): Lucretius
Variant Title(s): The Infant
Subject(s): Lucretius (99-55 B.c.); Nature; Storms; Translating & Interpreting


THUS like a Sayler by a Tempest hurl'd
A shore, the Babe is shipwrack'd on the World:
Naked he lies, and ready to expire;
Helpless of all that humane wants require:
Expos'd upon unhospitable Earth,
From the first moment of his hapless Birth.
Straight with forebodeing cryes he fills the Room;
(Too true presages of his future doom.)
But Flocks, and Herds, and every Savage Beast,
By more indulgent Nature are increas'd,
They want no Rattles for their froward mood,
Nor Nurse to reconcile them to their food,
With broken words; nor Winter blasts they fear,
Nor change their habits with the changing year:
Nor, for their safety, Citadels prepare;
Nor forge the wicked Instruments of War:
Unlabour'd Earth her bounteous treasure grants,
And Nature's lavish hand supplies their common wants.





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