De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. Again, perceivest not
  2. How stones are also conquered by Time?-
  3. Not how the lofty towers ruin down,
  4. And boulders crumble?- Not how shrines of gods
  5. And idols crack outworn?- Nor how indeed
  6. The holy Influence hath yet no power
  7. There to postpone the Terminals of Fate,
  8. Or headway make 'gainst Nature's fixed decrees?
  9. Again, behold we not the monuments
  10. Of heroes, now in ruins, asking us,
  11. In their turn likewise, if we don't believe
  12. They also age with eld? Behold we not
  13. The rended basalt ruining amain
  14. Down from the lofty mountains, powerless
  15. To dure and dree the mighty forces there
  16. Of finite time?- for they would never fall
  17. Rended asudden, if from infinite Past
  18. They had prevailed against all engin'ries
  19. Of the assaulting aeons, with no crash.