De Rerum Natura

The De Rerum Natura of Lucretius (99BC-55BC) is one of the great books of the world, a lucid explanation of physical phenomena that develops into a majestic vision of the ultimate nature of the universe. Lucretius' observations of the particularities of the world remain vividly alive across the centuries. Through his eyes we see the growth of crops and the changing seasons, the behaviour of animals and the symptoms of disease. We follow his enquiring, scientific mind as he investigates the workings of mirror images, thunderstorms and magnetism, how we walk and what sleep is. The poem's power lies in the tension between this brief, sensuous, richness of life, and Lucretius' overarching belief in an empty universe of eternally recurring elements. C.H. Sisson's version of Lucretius's De Rerum Natura is well worth having. It should help to bring back into active presence not only the most Latin of major Latin poets, but a work in which the perennial question as to whether science and poetry, philosophy and poetry, can be united receives an unsurpassed affirmative answer.