De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

Lucretius. De Rerum Natura. William Ellery Leonard. E. P. Dutton. 1916.

  1. Lest, perchance,
  2. Concerning these affairs thou ponderest
  3. In silent meditation, let me say
  4. 'Twas lightning brought primevally to earth
  5. The fire for mortals, and from thence hath spread
  6. O'er all the lands the flames of heat. For thus
  7. Even now we see so many objects, touched
  8. By the celestial flames, to flash aglow,
  9. When thunderbolt has dowered them with heat.
  10. Yet also when a many-branched tree,
  11. Beaten by winds, writhes swaying to and fro,
  12. Pressing 'gainst branches of a neighbour tree,
  13. There by the power of mighty rub and rub
  14. Is fire engendered; and at times out-flares
  15. The scorching heat of flame, when boughs do chafe
  16. Against the trunks. And of these causes, either
  17. May well have given to mortal men the fire.
  18. Next, food to cook and soften in the flame
  19. The sun instructed, since so oft they saw
  20. How objects mellowed, when subdued by warmth
  21. And by the raining blows of fiery beams,
  22. Through all the fields.