The Fable Of Dryope - Ovid's Metamorphoses Book 9, (v - 324-393) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ KLMMNNOPQQRRSSTTUUHH VWXXYZZJJJJJJJJA2A2J JJRB2B2C2DD2D2ZZJJFF FDDJJSSAAE2F2B2B2G2G 2H2H2ZZI2J2K2K2L2M2B 2B2JJ| She said and for her lost Calanthis sighs | A |
| When the fair Consort of her son replies | A |
| Since you a servant's ravish'd form bemoan | B |
| And kindly sigh for sorrows not your own | B |
| Let me if tears and grief permit relate | C |
| A nearer woe a sister's stranger fate | C |
| No Nymph of all OEchalia could compare | D |
| For beauteous form with Dryope the fair | D |
| Her tender mother's only hope and pride | E |
| Myself the offspring of a second bride | E |
| This Nymph compress'd by him who rules the day | F |
| Whom Delphi and the Delian isle obey | F |
| Andraemon lov'd and bless'd in all those charms | G |
| That pleas'd a God succeeded to her arms | G |
| A lake there was with shelving banks around | H |
| Whose verdant summit fragrant myrtles crown'd | H |
| These shades unknowing of the fates she sought | I |
| And to the Naiads flow'ry garlands brought | I |
| Her smiling babe a pleasing charge she prest | J |
| Within her arms and nourish'd at her breast | J |
| Not distant far a wat'ry Lotos grows | K |
| The spring was new and all the verdant boughs | L |
| Adorn'd with blossoms promis'd fruits that vie | M |
| In glowing colours with the Tyrian dye | M |
| Of these she cropp'd to please her infant son | N |
| And I myself the same rash act had done | N |
| But lo I saw as near her side I stood | O |
| The violated blossoms drop with blood | P |
| Upon the tree I cast a frightful look | Q |
| The trembling tree with sudden horror shook | Q |
| Lotis the nymph if rural tales be true | R |
| As from Priapus' lawless lust she flew | R |
| Forsook her form and fixing here became | S |
| A flow'ry plant which still preserves her name | S |
| This change unknown astonish'd at the sight | T |
| My trembling sister strove to urge her flight | T |
| And first the pardon of the nymphs implor'd | U |
| And those offended sylvan powers ador'd | U |
| But when she backward would have fled she found | H |
| Her stiff'ning feet were rooted in the ground | H |
| In vain to free her fasten'd feet she strove | V |
| And as she struggles only moves above | W |
| She feels th' encroaching bark around her grow | X |
| By quick degrees and cover all below | X |
| Surpris'd at this her trembling hand she heaves | Y |
| To rend her hair the shooting leaves are seen | Z |
| To rise and shade her with a sudden green | Z |
| The child Amphissus to her bosom prest | J |
| Perceiv'd a colder and a harder breast | J |
| And found the springs that ne'er till then deny'd | J |
| Their milky moisture on a sudden dry'd | J |
| I saw unhappy what I now relate | J |
| And stood the helpless witness of thy fate | J |
| Embrac'd thy boughs thy rising bark delay'd | J |
| There wish'd to grow and mingle shade with shade | J |
| Behold Andraemon and th' unhappy sire | A2 |
| Appear and for their Dryope enquire | A2 |
| A springing tree for Dryope they find | J |
| And print warm kisses on the panting rind | J |
| Prostrate with tears their kindred plant bedew | J |
| And close embrace as to the roots they grew | R |
| The face was all that now remain'd of thee | B2 |
| No more a woman nor yet quite a tree | B2 |
| Thy branches hung with humid pearls appear | C2 |
| From ev'ry leaf distils a trickling tear | D |
| And straight a voice while yet a voice remains | D2 |
| Thus thro' the trembling boughs in sighs complains | D2 |
| 'If to the wretched any faith be giv'n | Z |
| I swear by all th' unpitying pow'rs of heav'n | Z |
| No wilful crime this heavy vengeance bred | J |
| In mutual innocence our lives we led | J |
| If this be false let these new greens decay | F |
| Let sounding axes lop my limbs away | F |
| And crackling flames on all my honours prey | F |
| But from my branching arms this infant bear | D |
| Let some kind nurse supply a mother's care | D |
| And to his mother let him oft be led | J |
| Sport in her shades and in her shades be fed | J |
| Teach him when first his infant voice shall frame | S |
| Imperfect words and lisp his mother's name | S |
| To hail this tree and say with weeping eyes | A |
| Within this plant my hapless parent lies | A |
| And when in youth he seeks the shady woods | E2 |
| Oh let him fly the crystal lakes and floods | F2 |
| Nor touch the fatal flow'rs but warn'd by me | B2 |
| Believe a Goddess shrin'd in ev'ry tree | B2 |
| My sire my sister and my spouse farewell | G2 |
| If in your breasts or love or pity dwell | G2 |
| Protect your plant nor let my branches feel | H2 |
| The browsing cattle or the piercing steel | H2 |
| Farewell and since I cannot bend to join | Z |
| My lips to yours advance at least to mine | Z |
| My son thy mother's parting kiss receive | I2 |
| While yet thy mother has a kiss to give | J2 |
| I can no more the creeping rind invades | K2 |
| My closing lips and hides my head in shades | K2 |
| Remove your hands the bark shall soon suffice | L2 |
| Without their aid to seal these dying eyes ' | M2 |
| She ceas'd at once to speak and ceas'd to be | B2 |
| And all the nymph was lost within the tree | B2 |
| Yet latent life thro' her new branches reign'd | J |
| And long the plant a human heat retain'd | J |
Alexander Pope
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