Canto I Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABACBDDEBFEGEHFIJJJA KBEJBJLJJMEJJNJJJKBB JEOJEPBQPRBJJBBSQ KBEKE TJJUJEVJUBKJB| And then went down to the ship | A |
| Set keel to breakers forth on the godly sea and | B |
| We set up mast and sail on that swart ship | A |
| Bore sheep aboard her and our bodies also | C |
| Heavy with weeping and winds from sternward | B |
| Bore us onward with bellying canvas | D |
| Crice's this craft the trim coifed goddess | D |
| Then sat we amidships wind jamming the tiller | E |
| Thus with stretched sail we went over sea till day's end | B |
| Sun to his slumber shadows o'er all the ocean | F |
| Came we then to the bounds of deepest water | E |
| To the Kimmerian lands and peopled cities | G |
| Covered with close webbed mist unpierced ever | E |
| With glitter of sun rays | H |
| Nor with stars stretched nor looking back from heaven | F |
| Swartest night stretched over wreteched men there | I |
| The ocean flowing backward came we then to the place | J |
| Aforesaid by Circe | J |
| Here did they rites Perimedes and Eurylochus | J |
| And drawing sword from my hip | A |
| I dug the ell square pitkin | K |
| Poured we libations unto each the dead | B |
| First mead and then sweet wine water mixed with white flour | E |
| Then prayed I many a prayer to the sickly death's heads | J |
| As set in Ithaca sterile bulls of the best | B |
| For sacrifice heaping the pyre with goods | J |
| A sheep to Tiresias only black and a bell sheep | L |
| Dark blood flowed in the fosse | J |
| Souls out of Erebus cadaverous dead of brides | J |
| Of youths and of the old who had borne much | M |
| Souls stained with recent tears girls tender | E |
| Men many mauled with bronze lance heads | J |
| Battle spoil bearing yet dreory arms | J |
| These many crowded about me with shouting | N |
| Pallor upon me cried to my men for more beasts | J |
| Slaughtered the herds sheep slain of bronze | J |
| Poured ointment cried to the gods | J |
| To Pluto the strong and praised Proserpine | K |
| Unsheathed the narrow sword | B |
| I sat to keep off the impetuous impotent dead | B |
| Till I should hear Tiresias | J |
| But first Elpenor came our friend Elpenor | E |
| Unburied cast on the wide earth | O |
| Limbs that we left in the house of Circe | J |
| Unwept unwrapped in the sepulchre since toils urged other | E |
| Pitiful spirit And I cried in hurried speech | P |
| 'Elpenor how art thou come to this dark coast | B |
| 'Cam'st thou afoot outstripping seamen ' | Q |
| And he in heavy speech | P |
| 'Ill fate and abundant wine I slept in Crice's ingle | R |
| 'Going down the long ladder unguarded | B |
| 'I fell against the buttress | J |
| 'Shattered the nape nerve the soul sought Avernus | J |
| 'But thou O King I bid remember me unwept unburied | B |
| 'Heap up mine arms be tomb by sea bord and inscribed | B |
| 'A man of no fortune and with a name to come | S |
| 'And set my oar up that I swung mid fellows ' | Q |
| - | |
| And Anticlea came whom I beat off and then Tiresias Theban | K |
| Holding his golden wand knew me and spoke first | B |
| 'A second time why man of ill star | E |
| 'Facing the sunless dead and this joyless region | K |
| 'Stand from the fosse leave me my bloody bever | E |
| 'For soothsay ' | - |
| And I stepped back | T |
| And he strong with the blood said then 'Odysseus | J |
| 'Shalt return through spiteful Neptune over dark seas | J |
| 'Lose all companions ' Then Anticlea came | U |
| Lie quiet Divus I mean that is Andreas Divus | J |
| In officina Wecheli out of Homer | E |
| And he sailed by Sirens and thence outwards and away | V |
| And unto Crice | J |
| Venerandam | U |
| In the Cretan's phrase with the golden crown Aphrodite | B |
| Cypri munimenta sortita est mirthful oricalchi with golden | K |
| Girdle and breat bands thou with dark eyelids | J |
| Bearing the golden bough of Argicidia So that | B |
Ezra Pound
(1)
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About Canto I
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