On The Palatine Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABABBB CDCDDD EFEFFF GHGHHH IJIJJJ JKJKKK LMLMMM JNJNON LPLPPP JQJRQQ JSJSSS QTQTTT UEUEEE SQSQQQ

I tread the vast deserted stageA
Whereon the Caesars lived and diedB
The relics of Rome's golden ageA
Lie strewn about me far and wideB
Mementoes of an empire's prideB
The homes of men once deifiedB
-
What are they now Stupendous pilesC
Of mouldering corridors and wallsD
On which alike the sunshine smilesC
And cold the rain of winter fallsD
A wilderness of roofless hallsD
Whose tragic history appallsD
-
Below me like an opened graveE
The Forum's excavations lieF
Where column arch and architraveE
In solemn grandeur greet the eyeF
Still guarding 'neath Italia's skyF
The glory that can never dieF
-
And here above me and aroundG
In part still shrouded by the soilH
A stony chaos strews the groundG
Where patient students delve and toilH
To bring to light Time's buried spoilH
And History's tangled threads uncoilH
-
Halt where thou standest Rome was bornI
These stones by Romulus were placedJ
When on that far off April mornI
Two snow white bulls the furrow tracedJ
For Rome's first wall which firmly basedJ
Two thousand years have not effacedJ
-
From these rude blocks how vast the boundJ
To that huge labyrinthine massK
Through which the secret pathways woundJ
Where emperors if alarmed could passK
Yet even there could find alasK
The poignard or the poisoned glassK
-
What ghastly crimes these rooms recallL
Here Nero watched his brother drainM
The fatal draught then lifeless fallL
Here too Caligula was slainM
When shrieking with disordered brainM
He pleaded for his life in vainM
-
At every turn some pallid ghostJ
With haggard features seems to riseN
To join the long drawn murdered hostJ
That moves with sad averted eyesN
Like victims to a sacrificeO
To where the Via Sacra liesN
-
Behold the mighty Judgment HallL
Where Nero with indifferent airP
Remarked the pleading of St PaulL
Nor dreamed the man before him thereP
Would soon be read and reverenced whereP
The Roman empire had no shareP
-
Where are they all those men of prideJ
Whose palace was the PalatineQ
From Romulus the fratricideJ
To Hadrian and ConstantineR
The last of all the western lineQ
Of Caesars who were deemed divineQ
-
And all the millions who were swayedJ
By those who dwelt upon this hillS
And who in humble awe obeyedJ
The dictates of their sovereign willS
Are they self conscious beings stillS
Or are their minds and bodies NilS
-
I watch our planet's god declineQ
Behind the tomb girt Appian WayT
The old imperial PalatineQ
Grows purple 'neath the sun's last rayT
Shades of the Caesars if ye mayT
The mystery of death portrayT
-
Are there in truth Elysian FieldsU
And is there life beyond the graveE
Or are the years that Nature yieldsU
Confined this side the Stygian waveE
For those who more existence craveE
Is there a Power to help and saveE
-
Alas no answer on their hillS
The murdered Caesars make no signQ
Their myriad subjects too are stillS
Mute as the voiceless PalatineQ
Yet overhead the fixed stars shineQ
And bid us trust in the DivineQ

John L. Stoddard



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