A review by zmb
The Nature of Things by Lucretius, Lucretius
5.0
Lucretius is startlingly modern. Though he's not yet an empiricist of the western type, his science is oddly prescient in many ways (though amusingly off in others). His philosophy that the world can be explained by natural processes without any recourse to the supernatural puts him squarely at odds with the Greek and Roman philosophers I've read, and many westerners as well. And, of course, his desire to free his fellow men from the superstition of religious practices is thoroughly modern, although similar to other philosophic traditions in his own times.
And this work, this exhibition of science and philosophy is...beautiful poetry? Well, I can't speak to the original (yet), but the translation was quite fun and the English rhymed couplets makes the whole thing seem even more quixotic. Who writes a half science textbook, half philosophical treatise in poetry? And yet it works shockingly well.
As far as long poems go, Lucretius's didactic epic is much closer to own my thoughts and beliefs than Homer's brutal epics, or Virgil's ode to Rome(/Augustus), or Dante's terrible journey, or Milton's moralizing sermon. Not bad for a 2000 year old poem.
And this work, this exhibition of science and philosophy is...beautiful poetry? Well, I can't speak to the original (yet), but the translation was quite fun and the English rhymed couplets makes the whole thing seem even more quixotic. Who writes a half science textbook, half philosophical treatise in poetry? And yet it works shockingly well.
As far as long poems go, Lucretius's didactic epic is much closer to own my thoughts and beliefs than Homer's brutal epics, or Virgil's ode to Rome(/Augustus), or Dante's terrible journey, or Milton's moralizing sermon. Not bad for a 2000 year old poem.