Lucretius Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMINOPQRS TUVWC XYZA2VB2C2 VVD2E2VVVXF2VB2G2VH2 OI2J2K2L2M2N2VVO2PVP 2 Q2R2US2T2PU2 PVPVV2L2 W2VX2Y2PPZ2 L2VL2VL2A3 T2L2L2L2L2VT2VL2VF2B 3L2L2L2L2VV L2L2L2L2C3VD3E3Z2PX2 VX2L2F3L2PY2L2L2L2 PVX2D3PL2I2VVL2VVPPP G3L2PPD3VX2H3VL2VD3L 2Lucilla wedded to Lucretius found | A |
Her master cold for when the morning flush | B |
Of passion and the first embrace had died | C |
Between them tho' he loved her none the less | D |
Yet often when the woman heard his foot | E |
Return from pacings in the field and ran | F |
To greet him with a kiss the master took | G |
Small notice or austerely for his mind | H |
Half buried in some weightier argument | I |
Or fancy borne perhaps upon the rise | J |
And long roll of the hexameter he past | K |
To turn and ponder those three hundred scrolls | L |
Left by the Teacher whom he held divine | M |
She brook'd it not but wrathful petulant | I |
Dreaming some rival sought and found a witch | N |
Who brew'd the philtre which had power they said | O |
To lead an errant passion home again | P |
And this at times she mingled with his drink | Q |
And this destroy'd him for the wicked broth | R |
Confused the chemic labor of the blood | S |
And tickling the brute brain within the man's | T |
Made havoc among those tender cells and check'd | U |
His power to shape He loathed himself and once | V |
After a tempest woke upon a morn | W |
That mock'd him with returning calm and cried | C |
- | |
Storm in the night for thrice I heard the rain | X |
Rushing and once the flash of a thunderbolt | Y |
Methought I never saw so fierce a fork | Z |
Struck out the streaming mountain side and show'd | A2 |
A riotous confluence of watercourses | V |
Blanching and billowing in a hollow of it | B2 |
Where all but yester eve was dusty dry | C2 |
- | |
Storm and what dreams ye holy Gods what dreams | V |
For thrice I waken'd after dreams Perchance | V |
We do but recollect the dreams that come | D2 |
Just ere the waking Terrible for it seem'd | E2 |
A void was made in Nature all her bonds | V |
Crack'd and I saw the flaring atom streams | V |
And torrents of her myriad universe | V |
Ruining along the illimitable inane | X |
Fly on to clash together again and make | F2 |
Another and another frame of things | V |
For ever That was mine my dream I knew it | B2 |
Of and belonging to me as the dog | G2 |
With inward yelp and restless forefoot plies | V |
His function of the woodland but the next | H2 |
I thought that all the blood by Sylla shed | O |
Came driving rainlike down again on earth | I2 |
And where it dash'd the reddening meadow sprang | J2 |
No dragon warriors from Cadmean teeth | K2 |
For these I thought my dream would show to me | L2 |
But girls Hetairai curious in their art | M2 |
Hired animalisms vile as those that made | N2 |
The mulberry faced Dictator's orgies worse | V |
Than aught they fable of the quiet Gods | V |
And hands they mixt and yell'd and round me drove | O2 |
In narrowing circles till I yell'd again | P |
Half suffocated and sprang up and saw | V |
Was it the first beam of my latest day | P2 |
- | |
Then then from utter gloom stood out the | Q2 |
The breasts of Helen and hoveringly a sword | R2 |
Now over and now under now direct | U |
Pointed itself to pierce but sank down shamed | S2 |
At all that beauty and as I stared a fire | T2 |
The fire that left a roofless Ilion | P |
Shot out of them and scorch'd me that I woke | U2 |
- | |
Is this thy vengeance holy Venus thine | P |
Because I would not one of thine own doves | V |
Not even a rose were offered to thee thine | P |
Forgetful how my rich proemion makes | V |
Thy glory fly along the Italian field | V2 |
In lays that will outlast thy deity | L2 |
- | |
Deity nay thy worshippers My tongue | W2 |
Trips or I speak profanely Which of these | V |
Angers thee most or angers thee at all | X2 |
Not if thou be'st of those who far aloof | Y2 |
From envy hate and pity and spite and scorn | P |
Live the great life which all our greatest fain | P |
Would follow centred in eternal calm | Z2 |
- | |
Nay if thou canst | L2 |
Goddess like ourselves | V |
Touch and be touch'd then would I cry to thee | L2 |
To kiss thy Mavors roll thy tender arms | V |
Round him and keep him from the lust of blood | L2 |
That makes a steaming slaughter house of Rome | A3 |
- | |
Ay but I meant not thee I meant riot her | T2 |
Whom all the pines of Ida shook to see | L2 |
Slide from that quiet heaven of hers and tempt | L2 |
The Trojan while his neatherds were abroad | L2 |
Nor her that o'er her wounded hunter wept | L2 |
Her deity false in human amorous tears | V |
Nor whom her beardless apple arbiter | T2 |
Decided fairest Rather O ye Gods | V |
Poet like as the great Sicilian called | L2 |
Calliope to grace his golden verse | V |
Ay and this Kypris also did I take | F2 |
That popular name of thine to shadow forth | B3 |
The all generating powers and genial heat | L2 |
Of Nature when she strikes thro' the thick blood | L2 |
Of cattle and light is large and lambs are glad | L2 |
Nosing the mother's udder and the bird | L2 |
Makes his heart voice amid the blaze of flowers | V |
Which things appear the work of mighty Gods | V |
- | |
The Gods and if I go my work is left | L2 |
Unfinish'd if I go The Gods who haunt | L2 |
The lucid interspace of world and world | L2 |
Where never creeps a cloud or moves a wind | L2 |
Nor ever falls the least white star of mow | C3 |
Nor ever lowest roll of thunder moans | V |
Nor sound of human sorrow mounts to mar | D3 |
Their sacred everlasting calm and such | E3 |
Not all so fine nor so divine a calm | Z2 |
Not such nor all unlike it man may gain | P |
Letting his own life go The Gods the Godsl | X2 |
If all be atoms how then should the Gods | V |
Being atomic not be dissoluble | X2 |
Not follow the great law My master held | L2 |
That Gods there are for all men so believe | F3 |
I prest my footsteps into his and meant | L2 |
Surely to lead my Memmius in a train | P |
Of fiowery clauses onward to the proof | Y2 |
That Gods there are and deathless Meant I meant | L2 |
I have forgotten what I meant my mind | L2 |
Stumbles and all my faculties are lamed | L2 |
- | |
Look where another of our Gods the Sun | P |
Apollo Delius or of older use | V |
All seeing Hyperion what you will | X2 |
Has mounted yonder since he never sware | D3 |
Except his wrath were wreak'd on wretched man | P |
That he would only shine among the dead | L2 |
Hereafter tales for never yet on earth | I2 |
Could dead flesh creep or bits of roasting ox | V |
Moan round the spit nor knows he what he sees | V |
King of the East altho' he seem and girt | L2 |
With song and flame and fragrance slowly lifts | V |
His golden feet on those empurpled stairs | V |
That climb into the windy halls of heaven | P |
And here he glances on an eye new born | P |
And gets for greeting but a wail of pain | P |
And here he stays upon a freezing orb | G3 |
That fain would gaze upon him to the last | L2 |
And here upon a yellow eyelid fallen | P |
And closed by those who mourn a friend in vain | P |
Not thankful that his troubles are no more | D3 |
And me altho' his fire is on my face | V |
Blinding he sees not nor at all can tell | X2 |
Whether I mean this day to end myself | H3 |
Or lend an ear to Plato where he says | V |
That men like soldiers may not quit the post | L2 |
Allotted by the Gods But he that holds | V |
The Gods are careless wherefore need he care | D3 |
Greatly for them nor rather plunge at | L2 |
Alfred Lord Tennyson
(1)
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