The Project Gutenberg eBook of On the Nature of Things
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Title: On the Nature of Things
Author: Titus Lucretius Carus
Translator: William Ellery Leonard
Release date: January 1, 1997 [eBook #785]
Most recently updated: May 19, 2025
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/785
Credits: Produced by Levent Kurnaz, and David Widger
OF THE NATURE OF THINGS
By Titus Lucretius Carus
A Metrical Translation
By William Ellery Leonard
BOOK I
PROEM
Mother of Rome, delight of Gods and men,
Dear Venus that beneath the gliding stars
Makest to teem the many-voyaged main
And fruitful lands--for all of living things
Through thee alone are evermore conceived,
Through thee are risen to visit the great sun--
Before thee, Goddess, and thy coming on,
Flee stormy wind and massy cloud away,
For thee the daedal Earth bears scented flowers,
For thee waters of the unvexed deep
Smile, and the hollows of the serene sky
Glow wit…