Pharsalia - Book V: The Oracle. The Mutiny. The Storm Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJGKLMN OPOQRSTJUVWXYZGNA2A2 B2C2D2C2E2NF2C2NC2G2 H2C2I2J2K2RSC2NC2C2C 2 C2C2A2NC2C2L2UC2C2C2 A2M2NN2O2A2C2 P2Q2XR2S2T2 C2C2U2V2W2UXC2C2A2X2 A2Y2NH2Z2C2C2C2 C2A3G2NB3NC3H2SZ2C2A 2UC2D3C2F2A2 K2C2H2WE3C2C2F3H2G3Z 2E3T2C2E3C2C2C2WO2A2 E3C2H3 C2I3JJ3U2C2H2C2YC2NA 3C2K3E3G2WSL3C2C2C2W K2NC2C2M3H2X2N3C2C2O 3P3E3H2WC2Q3Thus had the smiles of Fortune and her frowns | A |
Brought either chief to Macedonian shores | B |
Still equal to his foe From cooler skies | C |
Sank Atlas' daughters down and Haemus' slopes | D |
Were white with winter and the day drew nigh | E |
Devoted to the god who leads the months | F |
And marking with new names the book of Rome | G |
When came the Fathers from their distant posts | H |
By both the Consuls to Epirus called | I |
Ere yet the year was dead a foreign land | J |
Obscure received the magistrates of Rome | G |
And heard their high debate No warlike camp | K |
This for the Consul's and the Praetor's axe | L |
Proclaimed the Senate house and Magnus sat | M |
One among many and the state was all | N |
- | |
When all were silent from his lofty seat | O |
Thus Lentulus began while stern and sad | P |
The Fathers listened 'If your hearts still beat | O |
With Latian blood and if within your breasts | Q |
Still lives your fathers' vigour look not now | R |
On this strange land that holds us nor enquire | S |
Your distance from the captured city yours | T |
This proud assembly yours the high command | J |
In all that comes Be this your first decree | U |
Whose truth all peoples and all kings confess | V |
Be this the Senate Let the frozen wain | W |
Demand your presence or the torrid zone | X |
Wherein the day and night with equal tread | Y |
For ever march still follows in your steps | Z |
The central power of Imperial Rome | G |
When flamed the Capitol with fires of Gaul | N |
When Veii held Camillus there with him | A2 |
Was Rome nor ever though it changed its clime | A2 |
Your order lost its rights In Caesar's hands | B2 |
Are sorrowing houses and deserted homes | C2 |
Laws silent for a space and forums closed | D2 |
In public fast His Senate house beholds | C2 |
Those Fathers only whom from Rome it drove | E2 |
While Rome was full Of that high order all | N |
Not here are exiles Ignorant of war | F2 |
Its crimes and bloodshed through long years of peace | C2 |
Ye fled its outburst now in session all | N |
Are here assembled See ye how the gods | C2 |
Weigh down Italia's loss by all the world | G2 |
Thrown in the other scale Illyria's wave | H2 |
Rolls deep upon our foes in Libyan wastes | C2 |
Is fallen their Curio the weightier part | I2 |
Of Caesar's senate Lift your standards then | J2 |
Spur on your fates and prove your hopes to heaven | K2 |
Let Fortune smiling give you courage now | R |
As when ye fled your cause The Consuls' power | S |
Fails with the dying year not so does yours | C2 |
By your commandment for the common weal | N |
Decree Pompeius leader ' With applause | C2 |
They heard his words and placed their country's fates | C2 |
Nor less their own within the chieftain's hands | C2 |
- | |
Then did they shower on people and on kings | C2 |
Honours well earned Rhodes Mistress of the Seas | C2 |
Was decked with gifts Athena old in fame | A2 |
Received her praise and the rude tribes who dwell | N |
On cold Taygetus Massilia's sons | C2 |
Their own Phocaea's freedom on the chiefs | C2 |
Of Thracian tribes fit honours were bestowed | L2 |
They order Libya by their high decree | U |
To serve King Juba's sceptre and alas | C2 |
On Ptolemaeus of a faithless race | C2 |
The faithless sovereign scandal to the gods | C2 |
And shame to Fortune placed the diadem | A2 |
Of Pella Boy thy sword was only sharp | M2 |
Against thy people Ah if that were all | N |
The fatal gift gave too Pompeius' life | N2 |
Bereft thy sister of her sire's bequest | O2 |
Half of the kingdom Caesar of a crime | A2 |
Then all to arms | C2 |
- | |
While soldier thus and chief | P2 |
In doubtful sort against their hidden fate | Q2 |
Devised their counsel Appius alone | X |
Feared for the chances of the war and sought | R2 |
Through Phoebus' ancient oracle to break | S2 |
The silence of the gods and know the end | T2 |
- | |
Between the western belt and that which bounds | C2 |
The furthest east midway Parnassus rears | C2 |
His double summit to the Bromian god | U2 |
And Paean consecrate to whom conjoined | V2 |
The Theban band leads up the Delphic feast | W2 |
On each third year This mountain when the sea | U |
Poured o'er the earth her billows rose alone | X |
By one high peak scarce master of the waves | C2 |
Parting the crest of waters from the stars | C2 |
There to avenge his mother from her home | A2 |
Chased by the angered goddess while as yet | X2 |
She bore him quick within her Paean came | A2 |
When Themis ruled the tripods and the spot | Y2 |
And with unpractised darts the Python slew | N |
But when he saw how from the yawning cave | H2 |
A godlike knowledge breathed and all the air | Z2 |
Was full of voices murmured from the depths | C2 |
He took the shrine and filled the deep recess | C2 |
Henceforth to prophesy | C2 |
- | |
Which of the gods | C2 |
Has left heaven's light in this dark cave to hide | A3 |
What spirit that knows the secrets of the world | G2 |
And things to come here condescends to dwell | N |
Divine omnipotent bear the touch of man | B3 |
And at his bidding deigns to lift the veil | N |
Perchance he sings the fates perchance his song | C3 |
Once sung is fate Haply some part of Jove | H2 |
Sent here to rule the earth with mystic power | S |
Balanced upon the void immense of air | Z2 |
Sounds through the caves and in its flight returns | C2 |
To that high home of thunder whence it came | A2 |
Caught in a virgin's breast this deity | U |
Strikes on the human spirit then a voice | C2 |
Sounds from her breast as when the lofty peak | D3 |
Of Etna boils forced by compelling flames | C2 |
Or as Typheus on Campania's shore | F2 |
Frets 'neath the pile of huge Inarime | A2 |
- | |
Though free to all that ask denied to none | K2 |
No human passion lurks within the voice | C2 |
That heralds forth the god no whispered vow | H2 |
No evil prayer prevails none favour gain | W |
Of things unchangeable the song divine | E3 |
Yet loves the just When men have left their homes | C2 |
To seek another it hath turned their steps | C2 |
Aright as with the Tyrians and raised | F3 |
The hearts of nations to confront their foe | H2 |
As prove the waves of Salamis when earth | G3 |
Hath been unfruitful or polluted air | Z2 |
Has plagued mankind this utterance benign | E3 |
Hath raised their hopes and pointed to the end | T2 |
No gift from heaven's high gods so great as this | C2 |
Our centuries have lost since Delphi's shrine | E3 |
Has silent stood and kings forbade the gods | C2 |
To speak the future fearing for their fates | C2 |
Nor does the priestess sorrow that the voice | C2 |
Is heard no longer and the silent fane | W |
To her is happiness for whatever breast | O2 |
Contains the deity its shattered frame | A2 |
Surges with frenzy and the soul divine | E3 |
Shakes the frail breath that with the god receives | C2 |
As prize or punishment untimely death | H3 |
- | |
These tripods Appius seeks unmoved for years | C2 |
These soundless caverned rocks in quest to learn | I3 |
Hesperia's destinies At his command | J |
To loose the sacred gateways and permit | J3 |
The prophetess to enter to the god | U2 |
The keeper calls Phemonoe whose steps | C2 |
Round the Castalian fount and in the grove | H2 |
Were wandering careless her he bids to pass | C2 |
The portals But the priestess feared to tread | Y |
The awful threshold and with vain deceits | C2 |
Sought to dissuade the chieftain from his zeal | N |
To learn the future 'What this hope ' she cried | A3 |
'Roman that moves thy breast to know the fates | C2 |
Long has Parnassus and its silent cleft | K3 |
Stifled the god perhaps the breath divine | E3 |
Has left its ancient gorge and thro' the world | G2 |
Wanders in devious paths or else the fane | W |
Consumed to ashes by barbarian fire | S |
Closed up the deep recess and choked the path | L3 |
Of Phoebus or the ancient Sibyl's books | C2 |
Disclosed enough of fate and thus the gods | C2 |
Decreed to close the oracle or else | C2 |
Since wicked steps are banished from the fane | W |
In this our impious age the god finds none | K2 |
Whom he may answer ' But the maiden's guile | N |
Was known for though she would deny the gods | C2 |
Her fears approved them On her front she binds | C2 |
A twisted fillet while a shining wreath | M3 |
Of Phocian laurels crowns the locks that flow | H2 |
Upon her shoulders Hesitating yet | X2 |
The priest compelled her and she passed within | N3 |
But horror filled her of the holiest depths | C2 |
From which the mystic oracle proceeds | C2 |
And resting near the doors in breast unmoved | O3 |
She dares invent the god in words confused | P3 |
Which proved no mind possessed with fire divine | E3 |
By such false chant less injuring the chief | H2 |
Than faith in Phoebus and the sacred fane | W |
No burst of words with tremor in their tones | C2 |
No voice re echoi | Q3 |
Marcus Annaeus Lucanus
(1)
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