Pharsalia - Book 1 Poem Rhyme Scheme

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The Crossing of the Rubicon	A
	-
Wars worse than civil on Emathian plains	B
And crime let loose we sing how Rome's high race	C
Plunged in her vitals her victorious sword	D
Armies akin embattled with the force	E
Of all the shaken earth bent on the fray	F
And burst asunder to the common guilt	G
A kingdom's compact eagle with eagle met	H
Standard to standard spear opposed to spear	I
	-
Whence citizens this rage this boundless lust	J
To sate barbarians with the blood of Rome	K
Did not the shade of Crassus wandering still	L
Cry for his vengeance Could ye not have spoiled	M
To deck your trophies haughty Babylon	N
Why wage campaigns that send no laurels home	K
What lands what oceans might have been the prize	O
Of all the blood thus shed in civil strife	P
Where Titan rises where night hides the stars	Q
'Neath southern noons all quivering with heat	R
Or where keen frost that never yields to spring	S
In icy fetters binds the Scythian main	T
Long since barbarians by the Eastern sea	U
And far Araxes' stream and those who know	V
If any such there be the birth of Nile	W
Had felt our yoke Then Rome upon thyself	P
With all the world beneath thee if thou must	J
Wage this nefarious war but not till then	X
	-
Now view the houses with half ruined walls	Y
Throughout Italian cities stone from stone	Z
Has slipped and lies at length within the home	K
No guard is found and in the ancient streets so	V
Scarce seen the passer by The fields in vain	T
Rugged with brambles and unploughed for years	A2
Ask for the hand of man for man is not	B2
Nor savage Pyrrhus nor the Punic horde	D
E'er caused such havoc to no foe was given	C2
To strike thus deep but civil strife alone	Z
Dealt the fell wound and left the death behind	D2
Yet if the fates could find no other way	F
For Nero coming nor the gods with ease	E2
Gain thrones in heaven and if the Thunderer	I
Prevailed not till the giant's war was done	C2
Complaint is silent For this boon supreme	F2
Welcome ye gods be wickedness and crime	G2
Thronged with our dead be dire Pharsalia's fields	H2
Be Punic ghosts avenged by Roman blood	I2
Add to these ills the toils of Mutina	C2
Perusia's dearth on Munda's final field	J2
The shock of battle joined let Leucas' Cape	K2
Shatter the routed navies servile hands	L2
Unsheath the sword on fiery Etna's slopes	M2
Still Rome is gainer by the civil war	I
Thou Caesar art her prize When thou shalt choose	N2
Thy watch relieved to seek divine abodes	N2
All heaven rejoicing and shalt hold a throne	C2
Or else elect to govern Phoebus' car	I
And light a subject world that shall not dread	O2
To owe her brightness to a different Sun	C2
All shall concede thy right do what thou wilt	G
Select thy Godhead and the central clime	G2
Whence thou shalt rule the world with power divine	C2
And yet the Northern or the Southern Pole	P2
We pray thee choose not but in rays direct	Q2
Vouchsafe thy radiance to thy city Rome	G2
Press thou on either side the universe	N2
Should lose its equipoise take thou the midst	R2
And weight the scales and let that part of heaven	C2
Where Caesar sits be evermore serene	C2
And smile upon us with unclouded blue	S2
Then may all men lay down their arms and peace	N2
Through all the nations reign and shut the gates	N2
That close the temple of the God of War	I
Be thou my help to me e'en now divine	C2
Let Delphi's steep her own Apollo guard	T2
And Nysa keep her Bacchus uninvoked	T2
Rome is my subject and my muse art thou	U2
	-
First of such deeds I purpose to unfold	T2
The causes task immense what drove to arms	N2
A maddened nation and from all the world	T2
Struck peace away	F
	-
By envious fate's decrees	N2
Abide not long the mightiest lords of earth	V2
Beneath too heavy a burden great the fall	W2
Thus Rome o'ergrew her strength So when that hour	I
The last in all the centuries shall sound	T2
The world's disruption all things shall revert	T2
To that primaeval chaos stars on stars	N2
Shall crash and fiery meteors from the sky	X2
Plunge in the ocean Earth shall then no more	I
Front with her bulwark the encroaching sea	N2
The moon indignant at her path oblique	Y2
Shall drive her chariot 'gainst her brother Sun	C2
And claim the day for hers and discord huge	Z2
Shall rend the spheres asunder	I
On themselves	N2
Great powers are dashed such bounds the gods have placed	T2
Upon the prosperous nor doth Fortune lend	T2
To any nations so that they may strike	A3
The sovereign power that rules the earth and sea	N2
The weapons of her envy Triple reign	C2
And baleful compact for divided power	I
Ne'er without peril separate before	I
Made Rome their victim Oh Ambition blind	T2
That stirred the leaders so to join their strength	B3
In peace that ended ill their prize the world	T2
For while the Sea on Earth and Earth on Air	I
Lean for support while Titan runs his course	N2
And night with day divides an equal sphere	I
No king shall brook his fellow nor shall power	I
Endure a rival Search no foreign lands	N2
These walls are proof that in their infant days	N2
A hamlet not the world was prize enough	P
To cause the shedding of a brother's blood	T2
	-
Concord on discord based brief time endured	T2
Unwelcome to the rivals and alone	C2
Crassus delayed the advent of the war	I
Like to the slender neck that separates	N2
The seas of Graecia should it be engulfed	T2
Then would th' Ionian and Aegean mains	N2
Break each on other thus when Crassus fell	C3
Who held apart the chiefs in piteous death	D3
And stained Assyria's plains with Latian blood	T2
Defeat in Parthia loosed the war in Rome	G2
More in that victory than ye thought was won	C2
Ye sons of Arsaces your conquered foes	N2
Took at your hands the rage of civil strife	P
The mighty realm that earth and sea contained	T2
To which all peoples bowed split by the sword	T2
Could not find space for two For Julia bore	I
Cut off by fate unpitying the bond	T2
Of that ill omened marriage and the pledge	E3
Of blood united to the shades below	V
Had'st thou but longer stayed it had been thine	C2
To keep the husband and the sire apart	T2
And as the Sabine women did of old	T2
Dash down the threatening swords and join the hands	N2
With thee all trust was buried and the chiefs	N2
Could give their courage vent and rushed to war	I
	-
Lest newer glories triumphs past obscure	I
Late conquered Gaul the bays from pirates won	C2
This Magnus was thy fear thy roll of fame	G2
Of glorious deeds accomplished for the state	T2
Allows no equal nor will Caesar's pride	T2
A prior rival in his triumphs brook	F3
Which had the right 'twere impious to enquire	I
Each for his cause can vouch a judge supreme	G2
The victor heaven the vanquished Cato thee	N2
Nor were they like to like the one in years	N2
Now verging towards decay in times of peace	N2
Had unlearned war but thirsting for applause	N2
Had given the people much and proud of fame	G2
His former glory cared not to renew	S2
But joyed in plaudits of the theatre	I
His gift to Rome his triumphs in the past	T2
Himself the shadow of a mighty name	G2
As when some oak in fruitful field sublime	G2
Adorned with venerable spoils and gifts	N2
Of bygone leaders by its weight to earth	V2
With feeble roots still clings its naked arms	N2
And hollow trunk though leafless give a shade	T2
And though condemned beneath the tempest's shock	G3
To speedy fall amid the sturdier trees	N2
In sacred grandeur rules the forest still	L
No such repute had Ceesar won nor fame	G2
But energy was his that could not rest	T2
The only shame he knew was not to win	C2
Keen and unvanquished where revenge or hope	H3
Might call resistless would he strike the blow	V
With sword unpitying every victory won	C2
Reaped to the full the favour of the gods	N2
Pressed to the utmost all that stayed his course	N2
Aimed at the summit of power was thrust aside	T2
Triumph his joy though ruin marked his track	I3
As parts the clouds a bolt by winds compelled	T2
With crack of riven air and crash of worlds	N2
And veils the light of day and on mankind	T2
Blasting their vision with its flames oblique	Y2
Sheds deadly fright then turning to its home '	-
Nought but the air opposing through its pat	T2

Marcus Annaeus Lucanus

Pharsalia - Book 1 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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