The Columbiad: Book Ii Poem Rhyme Scheme

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The Argument	A
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Natives of America appear in vision Their manners and characters Columbus demands the cause of the dissimilarity of men in different countries Hesper replies That the human body is composed of a due proportion of the elements suited to the place of its first formation that these elements differently proportioned produce all the changes of health sickness growth and decay and may likewise produce any other changes which occasion the diversity of men that these elemental proportions are varied not more by climate than temperature and other local circumstances that the mind is likewise in a state of change and will take its physical character from the body and from external objects examples Inquiry concerning the first peopling of America View of Mexico Its destruction by Cortez View of Cusco and Quito cities of Peru Tradition of Capac and Oella founders of the Peruvian empire Columbus inquires into their real history Hesper gives an account of their origin and relates the stratagems they used in establishing that empire	B
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High o'er his world as thus Columbus gazed	C
And Hesper still the changing scene emblazed	C
Round all the realms increasing lustre flew	D
And raised new wonders to the Patriarch's view	D
	-
He saw at once as far as eye could rove	E
Like scattering herds the swarthy people move	F
In tribes innumerable all the waste	C
Wide as their walks a varying shadow cast	C
As airy shapes beneath the moon's pale eye	G
People the clouds that sail the midnight sky	G
Dance thro the grove and flit along the glade	C
And cast their grisly phantoms on the shade	C
So move the hordes in thickets half conceal'd	C
Or vagrant stalking thro the fenceless field	C
Here tribes untamed who scorn to fix their home	H
O'er shadowy streams and trackless deserts roam	H
While others there in settled hamlets rest	C
And corn clad vales a happier state attest	C
	-
The painted chiefs in guise terrific drest	C
Rise fierce to war and beat their savage breast	C
Dark round their steps collecting warriors pour	I
Some fell revenge begins the hideous roar	I
From hill to hill the startling war song flies	J
And tribes on tribes in dread disorder rise	J
Track the mute foe and scour the howling wood	C
Loud as a storm ungovern'd as a flood	C
Or deep in groves the silent ambush lay	K
Lead the false flight decoy and seize their prey	K
Their captives torture butcher and devour	B
Drink the warm blood and paint their cheeks with gore	I
	-
Awhile he paused with dubious thoughts opprest	C
And thus to Hesper's ear his doubts addrest	C
Say to what class of nature's sons belong	L
The countless tribes of this untutor'd throng	L
Where human frames and brutal souls combine	M
No force can tame them and no arts refine	M
Can these be fashion'd on the social plan	N
Or boast a lineage with the race of man	N
When first we found them in yon hapless isle	O
They seem'd to know and seem'd to fear no guile	O
A timorous herd like harmless roes they ran	N
And call'd us Gods from whom their tribes began	N
But when their fears allay'd in us they trace	P
The well known image of a mortal race	P
When Spanish blood their wondering eyes beheld	C
A frantic rage their changing bosoms swell'd	C
They roused their bands from numerous hills afar	Q
To feast their souls on ruin waste and war	I
Nor plighted vows nor sure defeat control	R
The same indignant savageness of soul	R
	-
Tell then my Seer from what dire sons of earth	S
The brutal people drew their ancient birth	S
If these forgotten shores and useless tides	T
Have form'd them different from the world besides	T
Born to subjection when in happier time	U
A nobler race should reach their fruitful clime	U
Or if a common source all nations claim	U
Their lineage form and faculties the same	U
What sovereign secret cause yet undisplay'd	C
This wondrous change in nature's work has made	C
Why various powers of soul and tints of face	P
In different lands diversify the race	P
To whom the Guide Unnumbered causes lie	G
In earth and sea in climate soil and sky	G
That fire the soul or damp the genial flame	U
And work their wonders on the human frame	U
See beauty form and color change with place	P
Here charms of health the lively visage grace	P
There pale diseases float in every wind	C
Deform the figure and degrade the mind	C
	-
From earth's own elements thy race at first	C
Rose into life the children of the dust	C
These kindred elements by various use	V
Nourish the growth and every change produce	V
In each ascending stage the man sustain	W
His breath his food his physic and his bane	W
In due proportions where these atoms lie	G
A certain form their equal aids supply	G
And while unchanged the efficient causes reign	W
Age following age the certain form maintain	W
But where crude atoms disproportion'd rise	J
And cast their sickening vapors round the skies	J
Unlike that harmony of human frame	U
That moulded first and reproduce the same	U
The tribes ill form'd attempering to the clime	U
Still vary downward with the years of time	U
More perfect some and some less perfect yield	C
Their reproductions in this wondrous field	C
Till fixt at last their characters abide	C
And local likeness feeds their local pride	C
The soul too varying with the change of clime	U
Feeble or fierce or groveling or sublime	U
Forms with the body to a kindred plan	N
And lives the same a nation or a man	N
	-
Yet think not clime alone the tint controls	X
On every shore by altitude of poles	X
A different cast the glowing zone demands	Y
In Paria's groves from Tombut's burning sands	Y
Unheeded agents for the sense too fine	M
With every pulse with every thought combine	M
Thro air and ocean with their changes run	Z
Breathe from the ground or circle with the sun	Z
Where these long continents their shores outspread	C
See the same form all different tribes pervade	C
Thro all alike the fertile forests bloom	U
And all uncultured shed a solemn gloom	U
Thro all great nature's boldest features rise	J
Sink into vales or tower amid the skies	J
Streams darkly winding stretch a broader sway	K
The groves and mountains bolder walks display	K
A dread sublimity informs the whole	R
And rears a dread sublimity of soul	R
	-
Yet time and art shall other changes find	C
And open still and vary still the mind	C
The countless clans that tread these dank abodes	J
Who glean spontaneous fruits and range the woods	J
Fixt here for ages in their swarthy face	J
Display the wild complexion of the place	J
Yet when the hordes to happy nations rise	J
And earth By culture warms the genial skies	J
A fairer tint and more majestic grace	J
Shall flush their features and exalt the race	J
While milder arts with social joys refined	C
Inspire new beauties in the growing mind	C
	-
Thy followers too old Europe's noblest pride	C
When future gales shall wing them o'er the tide	C
A ruddier hue and deeper shade shall gain	W
And stalk in statelier figures on the plain	W
While nature's grandeur lifts the eye abroad	C
O'er these last labors of the forming God	C
Wing'd on a wider glance the venturous soul	R
Bids greater powers and bolder thoughts unrol	R
The sage the chief the patriot unconfined	C
Shield the weak world and meliorate mankind	C
But think not thou in all the range of man	N
That different pairs each different cast began	N
Or tribes distinct by signal marks confest	C
Were born to serve or subjugate the rest	C
	-
The Hero heard and thus resumed the strain	W
Who led these wanderers o'er the dreary main	W
Could their weak sires unskill'd in human lore	I
Build the bold bark to seek an unknown shore	I
A shore so distant from the world beside	C
So dark the tempests and so wild the tide	C
That Greece and Tyre and all who tempt the sea	J
Have shunn'd the task and left the fame to me	J
	-
When first thy roving race the Power replied	C
Learn'd by the stars the devious sail to guide	C
From stormy Hellespont explored the way	K
And sought the limits of the Midland sea	J
Before Alcides form'd h	-

Joel Barlow

The Columbiad: Book Ii Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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