1926. Lucretius was a Roman poet and the author of the philosophical epic De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of the Universe), a comprehensive exposition of the Epicurean world-view. His poetry is knit into a whole and vivified through all its parts by the fearless desire for truth, the consciousness of a great purpose, and a deep reverence for nature-felt almost as a personal presence-which has caused this bitter opponent of religion to be universally recognized as one of the most truly religious of the world's poets.