The Battle Of Salamis Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNBOPQRK SQTQUVWXQYQZQLA2QJQQ QB2C2D2KE2F2LQJ| The night was passing and the Grecian host | A |
| By no means sought to issue forth unseen | B |
| But when indeed the day with her white steeds | C |
| Held all the earth resplendent to behold | D |
| First from the Greeks the loud resounding din | E |
| Of song triumphant came and shrill at once | F |
| Echo responded from the island rock | G |
| Then upon all barbarians terror fell | H |
| Thus disappointed for not as for flight | I |
| The Hellenes sang the holy p an then | J |
| But setting forth to battle valiantly | K |
| The bugle with its note inflamed them all | L |
| And straightway with the dip of plashing oars | M |
| They smote the deep sea water at command | N |
| And quickly all were plainly to be seen | B |
| Their right wing first in orderly array | O |
| Led on and second all the armament | P |
| Followed them forth and meanwhile there was heard | Q |
| A mighty shout quot Come O ye sons of Greeks | R |
| Make free your country make your children free | K |
| Your wives and fanes of your ancestral gods | S |
| And your sires' tombs For all we now contend quot | Q |
| And from our side the rush of Persian speech | T |
| Replied No longer might the crisis wait | Q |
| At once ship smote on ship with brazen beak | U |
| A vessel of the Greeks began the attack | V |
| Crushing the stem of a Phoenician ship | W |
| Each on a different vessel turned its prow | X |
| At first the current of the Persian host | Q |
| Withstood but when within the strait the throng | Y |
| Of ships was gathered and they could not aid | Q |
| Each other but by their own brazen bows | Z |
| Were struck they shattered all our naval host | Q |
| The Grecian vessels not unskillfully | L |
| Were smiting round about the hulls of ships | A2 |
| Were overset the sea was hid from sight | Q |
| Covered with wreckage and the death of men | J |
| The reefs and headlands were with corpses filled | Q |
| And in disordered flight each ship was rowed | Q |
| As many as were of the Persian host | Q |
| But they like tunnies or some shoal of fish | B2 |
| With broken oars and fragments of the wrecks | C2 |
| Struck us and clove us and at once a cry | D2 |
| Of lamentation filled the briny sea | K |
| Till the black darkness' eye did rescue us | E2 |
| The number of our griefs not though ten days | F2 |
| I talked together could I fully tell | L |
| But this know well that never in one day | Q |
| Perished so great a multitude of men | J |
Aeschylus
(1)
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