Mother of Rome, delight of Gods and men, 
Dear Venus that beneath the gliding stars 
Makest to teem the many-voyaged main 
And fruitful lands- for all of living things 
Through thee alone are evermore conceived, 
Through thee are risen to visit the great sun- 
Before thee, Goddess, and thy coming on, 
Flee stormy wind and massy cloud away, 
For thee the daedal Earth bears scented flowers, 
For thee waters of the unvexed deep 
Smile, and the hollows of the serene sky 
Glow with diffused radiance for thee! 
For soon as comes the springtime face of day, 
And procreant gales blow from the West unbarred, 
First fowls of air, smit to the heart by thee, 
Foretoken thy approach, O thou Divine, 
And leap the wild herds round the happy fields 
Or swim the bounding torrents. Thus amain, 
Seized with the spell, all creatures follow thee 
Whithersoever thou walkest forth to lead, 
And thence through seas and mountains and swift streams, 
Through leafy homes of birds and greening plains, 
Kindling the lure of love in every breast, 
Thou bringest the eternal generations forth, 
Kind after kind. And since 'tis thou alone 
Guidest the Cosmos, and without thee naught 
Is risen to reach the shining shores of light, 
Nor aught of joyful or of lovely born, 
Thee do I crave co-partner in that verse 
Which I presume on Nature to compose 
For Memmius mine, whom thou hast willed to be 
Peerless in every grace at every hour- 
Wherefore indeed, Divine one, give my words 
Immortal charm. Lull to a timely rest 
O'er sea and land the savage works of war, 
For thou alone hast power with public peace 
To aid mortality; since he who rules 
The savage works of battle, puissant Mars, 
How often to thy bosom flings his strength 
O'ermastered by the eternal wound of love- 
And there, with eyes and full throat backward thrown, 
Gazing, my Goddess, open-mouthed at thee, 
Pastures on love his greedy sight, his breath 
Hanging upon thy lips. Him thus reclined 
Fill with thy holy body, round, above! 
Pour from those lips soft syllables to win 
Peace for the Romans, glorious Lady, peace! 
For in a season troublous to the state 
Neither may I attend this task of mine 
With thought untroubled, nor mid such events 
The illustrious scion of the Memmian house 
Neglect the civic cause. 
Whilst human kind 
Throughout the lands lay miserably crushed 
Before all eyes beneath Religion- who 
Would show her head along the region skies, 
Glowering on mortals with her hideous face- 
A Greek it was who first opposing dared 
Raise mortal eyes that terror to withstand, 
Whom nor the fame of Gods nor lightning's stroke 
Nor threatening thunder of the ominous sky 
Abashed; but rather chafed to angry zest 
His dauntless heart to be the first to rend 
The crossbars at the gates of Nature old. 
And thus his will and hardy wisdom won; 
And forward thus he fared afar, beyond 
The flaming ramparts of the world, until 
He wandered the unmeasurable All. 
Whence he to us, a conqueror, reports 
What things can rise to being, what cannot, 
And by what law to each its scope prescribed, 
Its boundary stone that clings so deep in Time. 
Wherefore Religion now is under foot, 
And us his victory now exalts to heaven. 
I know how hard it is in Latian verse 
To tell the dark discoveries of the Greeks, 
Chiefly because our pauper-speech must find 
Strange terms to fit the strangeness of the thing; 
Yet worth of thine and the expected joy 
Of thy sweet friendship do persuade me on 
To bear all toil and wake the clear nights through, 
Seeking with what of words and what of song 
I may at last most gloriously uncloud 
For thee the light beyond, wherewith to view 
The core of being at the centre hid. 
And for the rest, summon to judgments true, 
Unbusied ears and singleness of mind 
Withdrawn from cares; lest these my gifts, arranged 
For thee with eager service, thou disdain 
Before thou comprehendest: since for thee 
I prove the supreme law of Gods and sky, 
And the primordial germs of things unfold, 
Whence Nature all creates, and multiplies 
And fosters all, and whither she resolves 
Each in the end when each is overthrown. 
This ultimate stock we have devised to name 
Procreant atoms, matter, seeds of things, 
Or primal bodies, as primal to the world. 

I fear perhaps thou deemest that we fare 
An impious road to realms of thought profane; 
But 'tis that same religion oftener far 
Hath bred the foul impieties of men: 
As once at Aulis, the elected chiefs, 
Foremost of heroes, Danaan counsellors, 
Defiled Diana's altar, virgin queen, 
With Agamemnon's daughter, foully slain. 
She felt the chaplet round her maiden locks 
And fillets, fluttering down on either cheek,