| John Dryden (1631–1700). The Poems of John Dryden. 1913. | | | | Translations | | From Book the Fifth of Lucretius |
| | Tum porrò puer, &c.
THUS 1 like a Sayler by a Tempest hurl’d | |
| A shore, the Babe is shipwrack’d on the World: | |
| Naked he lies, and ready to expire; | |
| Helpless of all that humane wants require: | |
| Expos’d upon unhospitable Earth, | 5 |
| From the first moment of his hapless Birth. | |
| Straight with forebodeing cryes he fills the Room; | |
| (Too true presages of his future doom.) | |
| But Flocks, and Herds, and every Savage Beast, | |
| By more indulgent Nature are increas’d, | 10 |
| They want no Rattles for their froward mood, | |
| Nor Nurse to reconcile them to their food, | |
| With broken words; nor Winter blasts they fear, | |
| Nor change their habits with the changing year: | |
| Nor, for their safety, Citadels prepare; | 15 |
| Nor forge the wicked Instruments of War: | |
| Unlabour’d Earth her bounteous treasure grants, | |
| And Nature’s lavish hand 2 supplies their common wants. | |
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