From Homer Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBDEFBGFEHCFIEEEJEF IFFKLFEMFENFOPFIIPEF NHIEHPHLLPGEHIHFNEHH EEHIHEEFEGCIGFILGNEF PHFENEHHNPEFHPGIJHPE GEGEQIEHLGPFNIGFPEIN EENEFPHEF| Il | A |
| - | |
| - | |
| Sing O daughter of heaven of Peleus' son of Achilles | B |
| Him whose terrible wrath brought thousand woes on Achaia | C |
| Many a stalwart soul did it hurl untimely to Hades | B |
| Souls of the heroes of old and their bones lay strown on the sea sands | D |
| Prey to the vulture and dog Yet was Zeus fulfilling a purpose | E |
| Since that far off day when in hot strife parted asunder | F |
| Atreus' sceptred son and the chos'n of heaven Achilles | B |
| Say then which of the Gods bid arise up battle between them | G |
| Zeus's and Leto's son With the king was kindled his anger | F |
| Then went sickness abroad and the people died of the sickness | E |
| For that of Atreus' son had his priest been lightly entreated | H |
| Chryses Apollo's priest For he came to the ships of Achaia | C |
| Bearing a daughter's ransom a sum not easy to number | F |
| And in his hand was the emblem of Him far darting Apollo | I |
| High on a sceptre of gold and he made his prayer to the Grecians | E |
| Chiefly to Atreus' sons twin chieftains ordering armies | E |
| Chiefs sprung of Atreus' loins and ye brazen greaved Achaians | E |
| So may the Gods this day the Olympus palaced grant you | J |
| Priam's city to raze and return unscathed to your homesteads | E |
| Only my own dear daughter I ask take ransom and yield her | F |
| Rev'rencing His great name son of Zeus far darting Apollo | I |
| Then from the host of Achaians arose tumultuous answer | F |
| Due to the priest is his honour accept rich ransom and yield her | F |
| But there was war in the spirit of Atreus' son Agamemnon | K |
| Disdainful he dismissed him a right stern fiat appending | L |
| Woe be to thee old man if I find thee lingering longer | F |
| Yea or returning again by the hollow ships of Achaians | E |
| Scarce much then will avail thee the great god's sceptre and emblem | M |
| Her will I never release Old age must first come upon her | F |
| In my own home yea in Argos afar from the land of her fathers | E |
| Following the loom and attending upon my bed But avaunt thee | N |
| Go and provoke not me that thy way may be haply securer | F |
| These were the words of the king and the old man feared and obeyed him | O |
| Voiceless he went by the shore of the great dull echoing ocean | P |
| Thither he got him apart that ancient man and a long prayer | F |
| Prayed to Apollo his Lord son of golden ringleted Leto | I |
| Lord of the silver bow whose arm girds Chryse and Cilla | I |
| Cilla loved of the Gods and in might sways Tenedos hearken | P |
| Oh if in days gone by I have built from floor unto cornice | E |
| Smintheus a fair shrine for thee or burned in the flames of the altar | F |
| Fat flesh of bulls and of goats then do this thing that I ask thee | N |
| Hurl on the Greeks thy shafts that thy servant's tears be avenged | H |
| So did he pray and his prayer reached the ears of Phoebus Apollo | I |
| Dark was the soul of the god as he moved from the heights of Olympus | E |
| Shouldering a bow and a quiver on this side fast and on that side | H |
| Onward in anger he moved And the arrows stirred by the motion | P |
| Rattled and rang on his shoulder he came as cometh the midnight | H |
| Hard by the ships he stayed him and loosed one shaft from the bow string | L |
| Harshly the stretched string twanged of the bow all silvery shining | L |
| First fell his wrath on the mules and the swift footed hound of the herdsman | P |
| Afterward smote he the host With a rankling arrow he smote them | G |
| Aye and the morn and the even were red with the glare of the corpse fires | E |
| Nine days over the host sped the shafts of the god and the tenth day | H |
| Dawned and Achilles said Be a council called of the people | I |
| Such thought came to his mind from the goddess Hera the white armed | H |
| Hera who loved those Greeks and who saw them dying around her | F |
| So when all were collected and ranged in a solemn assembly | N |
| Straightway rose up amidst them and spake swift footed Achilles | E |
| Atreus' son it were better I think this day that we wandered | H |
| Back re seeking our homes if a warfare MAY be avoided | H |
| Now when the sword and the plague these two things fight with Achaians | E |
| Come let us seek out now some priest some seer amongst us | E |
| Yea or a dreamer of dreams for a dream too cometh of God's hand | H |
| Whence we may learn what hath angered in this wise Phoebus Apollo | I |
| Whether mayhap he reprove us of prayer or of oxen unoffered | H |
| Whether accepting the incense of lambs and of blemishless he goats | E |
| Yet it be his high will to remove this misery from us | E |
| Down sat the prince he had spoken And uprose to them in answer | F |
| Kalchas Thestor's son high chief of the host of the augurs | E |
| Well he knew what is present what will be and what was aforetime | G |
| He into Ilion's harbour had led those ships of Achaia | C |
| All by the Power of the Art which he gained from Phoebus Apollo | I |
| Thus then kindliest hearted arising spake he before them | G |
| Peleus' son Thou demandest a man heavenfavor'd an answer | F |
| Touching the Great King's wrath the afar off aiming Apollo | I |
| Therefore I lift up my voice Swear thou to me duly digesting | L |
| All that with right good will by word and by deed thou wilt aid me | G |
| Surely the ire will awaken of one who mightily ruleth | N |
| Over the Argives all and upon him wait the Achaians | E |
| Aye is the battle the king's when a poor man kindleth his anger | F |
| For if but this one day he devour his indignation | P |
| Still on the morrow abideth a rage that its end be accomplished | H |
| Deep in the soul of the king So bethink thee wilt thou deliver | F |
| Then unto him making answer arose swift footed Achilles | E |
| Fearing nought up and open the god's will all that is told thee | N |
| For by Apollo's self heaven's favourite whom thou Kalchas | E |
| Serving aright to the armies aloud God oracles op'nest | H |
| None while as yet I breathe upon earth yet walk in the daylight | H |
| Shall at the hollow ships lift hand of oppression against thee | N |
| None out of all yon host not and if thou said'st Agamemnon | P |
| Who now sits in his glory the topmost flower of the armies | E |
| Then did the blameless prophet at last wax valiant and answer | F |
| Lo He doth not reprove us of prayer or of oxen unoffered | H |
| But for his servant's sake the disdained of king Agamemnon | P |
| In that he loosed not his daughter inclined not his ear to a ransom | G |
| Therefore the Far darter sendeth and yet shall send on us evil | I |
| Nor shall he stay from the slaughter the hand that is heavy upon you | J |
| Till to her own dear father the bright eyed maiden is yielded | H |
| No price asked no ransom and ships bear hallowed oxen | P |
| Chryse wards then it may be will he shew mercy and hear us | E |
| These words said sat he down Then rose in his place and addressed them | G |
| Atreus' warrior son Agamemnon king of the nations | E |
| Sore grieved Fury was working in each dark cell of his bosom | G |
| And in his eye was a glare as a burning fiery furnace | E |
| First to the priest he addressed him his whole mien boding a mischief | Q |
| Priest of ill luck Never heard I of aught good from thee but evil | I |
| Still doth the evil thing unto thee seem sweeter of utt'rance | E |
| Leaving the thing which is good all unspoke all unaccomplished | H |
| Lo this day to the people thou say'st God oracles opening | L |
| What but that I am the cause why the god's hand worketh against them | G |
| For that in sooth I rejected a ransom aye and a rich one | P |
| Brought for the girl Briseis I did For I chose to possess her | F |
| Rather at home less favour hath Clytemnestra before me | N |
| Clytemnestra my wife unto her Briseis is equal | I |
| Equal in form and in stature in mind and in womanly wisdom | G |
| Still even thus am I ready to yield her so it be better | F |
| Better is saving alive I hold than slaying a nation | P |
| Meanwhile deck me a guerdon in her stead lest of Achaians | E |
| I should alone lack honour an unmeet thing and a shameful | I |
| See all men that my guerdon I wot not whither it goeth | N |
| Then unto him made answer the swift foot chieftain Achilles | E |
| O most vaunting of men most gain loving off spring of Atreus | E |
| How shall the lords of Achaia bestow fresh guerdon upon thee | N |
| Surely we know not yet of a treasure piled in abundance | E |
| That which the sacking of cities hath brought to us all hath an owner | F |
| Yea it were all unfit that the host make redistribution | P |
| Yield thou the maid to the god So threefold surely and fourfold | H |
| All we Greeks will requite thee should that day dawn when the great Gods | E |
| Grant that of yon proud walls not one stone rest on another | F |
Charles Stuart Calverley
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about From Homer poem by Charles Stuart Calverley
Best Poems of Charles Stuart Calverley