Virgil & Lucretius Passages translated by William Stebbing

So complain not, as if to strike away From life ere extreme age, if then, a day Were robbery. We have, all grant, no right O’er the past; Nature, keeping this in sight, Inquires...

“Far from me, were I able, to express Agonies of the Lost, their hopelessness! Enough their names who sinned;— here, hurled to Dis By lightning at bottom of the abyss Roll Earth...

My helm points landwards; and yet would I fain Re-commission my Muse, and sail again. The breezes, as I coast by Pæstum, bring Its twice-blowing rosebeds’ scent; I would sing, B...

Orpheus had been espoused but one short hour, And went to gather roses for the bower, When a rejected wooer, mad with love, Sprang upon the light-footed nymph, and strove For an...

The Prince and men, the Sibyl guiding, went By a rough track until a yawning rent In a grim cliff disclosed a cavern; day Was blocked by a dense grove; and in front lay A dim da...

As a queenly daffodil in the springtide of its bloom, Falls, whelmed beneath the plough-share, and wondering at its doom; Or as a scarlet poppy, laying weary neck on earth, Yiel...

Throughout it all, Mankind was being taught To voice the rising requirements of Thought. Gradual process! Gesture was first stage; The fingers point a want in infant age. Each c...