Lucretius
(94 - 50)

from De rerum Natura [I.1-9]
Aeneadum genetrix, hominum divumque voluptas,
alma Venus, caeli subter labentia signa
quae mare navigerum, quae terris frugiferentis
concelebras, per te quoniam genus omne animantum
concipitur visitque exortum lumina solis:
te, dea, te fugiunt venti, te nubila caeli
adventumque tuum, tibi suavis daedala tellus
sumittit flores, tibi rident aequora ponti
placatumque nitet diffuso lumine caelum.
Sri Aurobindos remarks:
«Lucretius who wrote an epic about the Nature of Things and invested the Epicurean philosophy with a rudely Roman and most unepicurean majesty and grandeur.»
«Lucretius work lives only, in spite of the majestic energy behind it, by its splendid digressions into pure poetry»