The Iliad: Book Vi (excerpt) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEE FFGGHHBBIIJJKKCC IILLMMNNOOPPQRCCSSTU KK VVWWXYBBZZVVMMA2A2B2 B2C2D2E2F2G2G2 H2H2B2B2I2I2J2BG2K2 WWL2L2MMCCM2M2BBBBCC MEN2N2QQO2O2BBP2P2Q2 Q2SSEEB2B2BBR2R2S2 WWQQIIT2T2 CCOOU2U2N2N2MV2 BBBBW2W2X2X2QQCC Y2Y2NNZ2MA3A3 AAQQB3B3DHe said and pass'd with sad presaging heart | A |
To seek his spouse his soul's far dearer part | A |
At home he sought her but he sought in vain | B |
She with one maid of all her menial train | B |
Had thence retir'd and with her second joy | C |
The young Astyanax the hope of Troy | C |
Pensive she stood on Ilion's tow'ry height | D |
Beheld the war and sicken'd at the sight | D |
There her sad eyes in vain her lord explore | E |
Or weep the wounds her bleeding country bore | E |
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But he who found not whom his soul desir'd | F |
Whose virtue charm'd him as her beauty fir'd | F |
Stood in the gates and ask'd what way she bent | G |
Her parting steps if to the fane she went | G |
Where late the mourning matrons made resort | H |
Or sought her sisters in the Trojan court | H |
Not to the court replied th' attendant train | B |
Nor mixed with matrons to Minerva's fane | B |
To Ilion's steepy tow'r she bent her way | I |
To mark the fortunes of the doubtful day | I |
Troy fled she heard before the Grecian sword | J |
She heard and trembled for her absent lord | J |
Distracted with surprise she seem'd to fly | K |
Fear on her cheek and sorrow in her eye | K |
The nurse attended with her infant boy | C |
The young Astyanax the hope of Troy | C |
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Hector this heard return'd without delay | I |
Swift through the town he trod his former way | I |
Through streets of palaces and walks of state | L |
And met the mourner at the Sc an gate | L |
With haste to meet him sprung the joyful fair | M |
His blameless wife E e tion's wealthy heir | M |
Cilician Theb great E e tion sway'd | N |
And Hippoplacus' wide extended shade | N |
The nurse stood near in whose embraces prest | O |
His only hope hung smiling at her breast | O |
Whom each soft charm and early grace adorn | P |
Fair as the new born star that gilds the morn | P |
To this lov'd infant Hector gave the name | Q |
Scamandrius from Scamander's honour'd stream | R |
Astyanax the Trojans call'd the boy | C |
From his great father the defence of Troy | C |
Silent the warrior smil'd and pleas'd resign'd | S |
To tender passions all his mighty mind | S |
His beauteous princess cast a mournful look | T |
Hung on his hand and then dejected spoke | U |
Her bosom labour'd with a boding sigh | K |
And the big tear stood trembling in her eye | K |
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Too daring prince ah whither dost thou run | V |
Ah too forgetful of thy wife and son | V |
And think'st thou not how wretched we shall be | W |
A widow I a helpless orphan he | W |
For sure such courage length of life denies | X |
And thou must fall thy virtue's sacrifice | Y |
Greece in her single heroes strove in vain | B |
Now hosts oppose thee and thou must be slain | B |
Oh grant me gods e'er Hector meets his doom | Z |
All I can ask of heav'n an early tomb | Z |
So shall my days in one sad tenor run | V |
And end with sorrows as they first begun | V |
No parent now remains my griefs to share | M |
No father's aid no mother's tender care | M |
The fierce Achilles wrapp'd our walls in fire | A2 |
Laid Theb waste and slew my warlike sire | A2 |
His fate compassion in the victor bred | B2 |
Stern as he was he yet rever'd the dead | B2 |
His radiant arms preserv'd from hostile spoil | C2 |
And laid him decent on the fun'ral pile | D2 |
Then rais'd a mountain where his bones were burn'd | E2 |
The mountain nymphs the rural tomb adorn'd | F2 |
Jove's sylvan daughters bade their elms bestow | G2 |
A barren shade and in his honour grow | G2 |
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By the same arm my sev'n brave brothers fell | H2 |
In one sad day beheld the gates of hell | H2 |
While the fat herds and snowy flocks they fed | B2 |
Amid their fields the hapless heroes bled | B2 |
My mother liv'd to bear the victor's bands | I2 |
The queen of Hippoplacia's sylvan lands | I2 |
Redeem'd too late she scarce beheld again | J2 |
Her pleasing empire and her native plain | B |
When ah oppress'd by life consuming woe | G2 |
She fell a victim to Diana's bow | K2 |
- | |
Yet while my Hector still survives I see | W |
My father mother brethren all in thee | W |
Alas my parents brothers kindred all | L2 |
Once more will perish if my Hector fall | L2 |
Thy wife thy infant in thy danger share | M |
Oh prove a husband's and a father's care | M |
That quarter most the skilful Greeks annoy | C |
Where yon wild fig trees join the wall of Troy | C |
Thou from this tow'r defend th' important post | M2 |
There Agamemnon points his dreadful host | M2 |
That pass Tydides Ajax strive to gain | B |
And there the vengeful Spartan fires his train | B |
Thrice our bold foes the fierce attack have giv'n | B |
Or led by hopes or dictated from heav'n | B |
Let others in the field their arms employ | C |
But stay my Hector here and guard his Troy | C |
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The chief replied That post shall be my care | M |
Not that alone but all the works of war | E |
How would the sons of Troy in arms renown'd | N2 |
And Troy's proud dames whose garments sweep the ground | N2 |
Attaint the lustre of my former name | Q |
Should Hector basely quit the field of fame | Q |
My early youth was bred to martial pains | O2 |
My soul impels me to th' embattled plains | O2 |
Let me be foremost to defend the throne | B |
And guard my father's glories and my own | B |
Yet come it will the day decreed by fates | P2 |
How my heart trembles while my tongue relates | P2 |
The day when thou imperial Troy must bend | Q2 |
And see thy warriors fall thy glories end | Q2 |
And yet no dire presage so wounds my mind | S |
My mother's death the ruin of my kind | S |
Not Priam's hoary hairs defil'd with gore | E |
Not all my brothers gasping on the shore | E |
As thine Andromache thy griefs I dread | B2 |
I see thee trembling weeping captive led | B2 |
In Argive looms our battles to design | B |
And woes of which so large a part was thine | B |
To bear the victor's hard commands or bring | R2 |
The weight of waters from Hyperia's spring | R2 |
There while you groan beneath the load of life | S2 |
They cry 'Behold the mighty Hector's wife ' | - |
Some haughty Greek who lives thy tears to see | W |
Embitters all thy woes by naming me | W |
The thoughts of glory past and present shame | Q |
A thousand griefs shall waken at the name | Q |
May I lie cold before that dreadful day | I |
Press'd with a load of monumental clay | I |
Thy Hector wrapp'd in everlasting sleep | T2 |
Shall neither hear thee sigh nor see thee weep | T2 |
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Thus having spoke th' illustrious chief of Troy | C |
Stretch'd his fond arms to clasp the lovely boy | C |
The babe clung crying to his nurse's breast | O |
Scar'd at the dazzling helm and nodding crest | O |
With secret pleasure each fond parent smil'd | U2 |
And Hector hasted to relieve his child | U2 |
The glitt'ring terrors from his brows unbound | N2 |
And plac'd the beaming helmet on the ground | N2 |
Then kiss'd the child and lifting high in air | M |
Thus to the gods preferr'd a father's pray'r | V2 |
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O thou whose glory fills th' ethereal throne | B |
And all ye deathless pow'rs protect my son | B |
Grant him like me to purchase just renown | B |
To guard the Trojans to defend the crown | B |
Against his country's foes the war to wage | W2 |
And rise the Hector of the future age | W2 |
So when triumphant from successful toils | X2 |
Of heroes slain he bears the reeking spoils | X2 |
Whole hosts may hail him with deserv'd acclaim | Q |
And say 'This chief transcends his father's fame' | Q |
While pleas'd amidst the gen'ral shouts of Troy | C |
His mother's conscious heart o'erflows with joy | C |
- | |
He spoke and fondly gazing on her charms | Y2 |
Restor'd the pleasing burthen to her arms | Y2 |
Soft on her fragrant breast the babe she laid | N |
Hush'd to repose and with a smile survey'd | N |
The troubled pleasure soon chastis'd by fear | Z2 |
She mingled with the smile a tender tear | M |
The soften'd chief with kind compassion view'd | A3 |
And dried the falling drops and thus pursu'd | A3 |
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Andromache my soul's far better part | A |
Why with untimely sorrows heaves thy heart | A |
No hostile hand can antedate my doom | Q |
Till fate condemns me to the silent tomb | Q |
Fix'd is the term to all the race of earth | B3 |
And such the hard condition of our birth | B3 |
No force can then resist no flight | D |
Alexander Pope
(1)
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