Pharsalia - Book V: The Oracle. The Mutiny. The Storm Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Thus 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

Pharsalia - Book V: The Oracle. The Mutiny. The Storm Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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