The Pillars Of Hercules Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCC DEDEFF BGBGFF HIHICC JKJKLL FMFMBB KNKNOO PQPQFF RSRSOO HFHFFF| Here ends at last the Inland Sea | A |
| Still seems its outlet as of yore | B |
| The anteroom of Mystery | A |
| As through its westward facing door | B |
| I see the vast Atlantic lie | C |
| In splendor 'neath a sunset sky | C |
| - | |
| Above its distant glittering rim | D |
| Streams o'er the waves a flood of gold | E |
| To gild the mountains bare and grim | D |
| Which guard this exit as of old | E |
| The sombre sentries of two seas | F |
| The Pillars reared by Hercules | F |
| - | |
| Gibraltar on the northern shore | B |
| By conquering Moors once proudly trod | G |
| And to the south a league or more | B |
| Huge Abyla the Mount of God | G |
| Whence burdened Atlas watched with ease | F |
| The Gardens of Hesperides | F |
| - | |
| How many slow paced centuries passed | H |
| Before brave sailors dared to creep | I |
| Beyond the gloom these monsters cast | H |
| And venture on the unknown deep | I |
| At last resolving to defy | C |
| The God established termini | C |
| - | |
| Yet no fierce gods opposed their path | J |
| No lurid bolt or arrow sped | K |
| To crush them with celestial wrath | J |
| And number them among the dead | K |
| The dreadful Pillars proved as tame | L |
| As other rocks of lesser fame | L |
| - | |
| Hence when before them stretched the sea | F |
| Majestic limitless and clear | M |
| A rapturous sense of being free | F |
| Dispelled all vestiges of fear | M |
| The longed for ocean to explore | B |
| From pole to pole from shore to shore | B |
| - | |
| Thus all men learn the God they dread | K |
| Is kinder than they had supposed | N |
| And that not God but Man hath said | K |
| The door to freedom must be closed | N |
| Once past that door with broadened view | O |
| They find Him better than they knew | O |
| - | |
| Meanwhile along the sunlit strait | P |
| My ship glides toward the saffron west | Q |
| Beyond the old Phenician gate | P |
| To ocean's gently heaving breast | Q |
| Whence on the ever freshening breeze | F |
| There greet my spirit words like these | F |
| - | |
| Sail bravely on the morning light | R |
| Shall find thee far beyond the land | S |
| Gibraltar's battlemented height | R |
| And Afric's tawny hills of sand | S |
| Shall soon completely sink from view | O |
| Beneath the ocean's belt of blue | O |
| - | |
| Sail on nor heed the shadows vast | H |
| Of fabled Powers whose fear enslaves | F |
| Their spectral shapes shall sink at last | H |
| Below the night's abandoned waves | F |
| Rest not confined by shoals and bars | F |
| Steer oceanward by God's fixed stars | F |
John L. Stoddard
(1)
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