Pharsalia - Book 1 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFGHI JKLMNKOPQRSTUVWPJX YZKVTA2B2DC2ZD2FE2IC 2F2G2H2I2C2J2K2L2M2I N2N2C2IO2C2GG2C2P2Q2 G2N2R2C2C2S2N2N2IC2T 2T2U2 T2N2T2F N2V2W2IT2T2N2X2IN2Y2 C2Z2IN2T2T2A3N2C2IIT 2B3T2IN2IIN2N2PT2 T2C2IN2T2N2C3D3T2G2C 2N2PT2T2IT2E3VC2T2T2 N2N2I IC2G2T2T2F3IG2N2N2N2 N2G2S2IT2G2G2N2V2N2T 2G3N2LG2T2C2H3VC2N2N 2T2I3T2N2T2Y2 T2The 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
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Previous Poem
Pharsalia - Book Iii: Massilia Poem>>