Lamp full

On the Nature of Things

Lucretius · Translated by William Ellery Leonard, 1916

Lucretius

On the Nature of Things

Translated by William Ellery Leonard, 1916

What this is

A poem explaining that the universe is atoms and void, that the gods take no interest in us, and that death is therefore nothing to fear — written in Latin hexameters in the first century BC to argue someone out of superstition. It survived in a single manuscript found in 1417.

How it is set

One leaf per book, set as verse: a line wraps with a hanging indent rather than reflowing into the next, because a line is a unit the poet chose. The verse paragraphs keep the gaps the translator gave them.

What is not here

Notes, and a map. The text and the translator’s own matter, and nothing else; an empty heading is better than invented filler.

The 6 books

  1. I Mother of Rome, delight of Gods and… 1,351 lines
  2. II 'Tis sweet, when, down the mighty main, the… 1,525 lines
  3. III O thou who first uplifted in such… 1,361 lines
  4. IV I wander afield, thriving in sturdy… 1,708 lines
  5. V O WHO can build with puissant breast a… 2,062 lines
  6. VI 'Twas Athens first, the glorious in… 1,795 lines
←  Return to the library Search this book

Text: Lucretius, On the Nature of Things — William Ellery Leonard’s verse translation, 1916, public domain, from Project Gutenberg ebook 785, set unaltered. The poem breaks off unfinished in the sixth book, in the middle of the plague at Athens. Nothing has been added to round it off.