Metamorphoses: Book The First Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDCCBBEEFFGHII BBBBBBJHHCCCFFJKLLMM NNBBIICCBBCCBBHHHHBB IIOPQRQSSCCBBBBHHBBT TRRBBIIHBBCCICIIQQQB BBBJKINBUBBBCCHHHHHR RBBBBBCC| OF bodies chang'd to various forms I sing | A |
| Ye Gods from whom these miracles did spring | A |
| Inspire my numbers with coelestial heat | B |
| 'Till I my long laborious work compleat | B |
| And add perpetual tenour to my rhimes | C |
| Deduc'd from Nature's birth to Caesar's times | C |
| The Creation of Before the seas and this terrestrial ball | D |
| the World And Heav'n's high canopy that covers all | D |
| One was the face of Nature if a face | C |
| Rather a rude and indigested mass | C |
| A lifeless lump unfashion'd and unfram'd | B |
| Of jarring seeds and justly Chaos nam'd | B |
| No sun was lighted up the world to view | E |
| No moon did yet her blunted horns renew | E |
| Nor yet was Earth suspended in the sky | F |
| Nor pois'd did on her own foundations lye | F |
| Nor seas about the shores their arms had thrown | G |
| But earth and air and water were in one | H |
| Thus air was void of light and earth unstable | I |
| And water's dark abyss unnavigable | I |
| No certain form on any was imprest | B |
| All were confus'd and each disturb'd the rest | B |
| For hot and cold were in one body fixt | B |
| And soft with hard and light with heavy mixt | B |
| But God or Nature while they thus contend | B |
| To these intestine discords put an end | B |
| Then earth from air and seas from earth were | J |
| driv'n | H |
| And grosser air sunk from aetherial Heav'n | H |
| Thus disembroil'd they take their proper place | C |
| The next of kin contiguously embrace | C |
| And foes are sunder'd by a larger space | C |
| The force of fire ascended first on high | F |
| And took its dwelling in the vaulted sky | F |
| Then air succeeds in lightness next to fire | J |
| Whose atoms from unactive earth retire | K |
| Earth sinks beneath and draws a num'rous throng | L |
| Of pondrous thick unwieldy seeds along | L |
| About her coasts unruly waters roar | M |
| And rising on a ridge insult the shore | M |
| Thus when the God whatever God was he | N |
| Had form'd the whole and made the parts agree | N |
| That no unequal portions might be found | B |
| He moulded Earth into a spacious round | B |
| Then with a breath he gave the winds to blow | I |
| And bad the congregated waters flow | I |
| He adds the running springs and standing lakes | C |
| And bounding banks for winding rivers makes | C |
| Some part in Earth are swallow'd up the most | B |
| In ample oceans disembogu'd are lost | B |
| He shades the woods the vallies he restrains | C |
| With rocky mountains and extends the plains | C |
| And as five zones th' aetherial regions bind | B |
| Five correspondent are to Earth assign'd | B |
| The sun with rays directly darting down | H |
| Fires all beneath and fries the middle zone | H |
| The two beneath the distant poles complain | H |
| Of endless winter and perpetual rain | H |
| Betwixt th' extreams two happier climates hold | B |
| The temper that partakes of hot and cold | B |
| The fields of liquid air inclosing all | I |
| Surround the compass of this earthly ball | I |
| The lighter parts lye next the fires above | O |
| The grosser near the watry surface move | P |
| Thick clouds are spread and storms engender there | Q |
| And thunder's voice which wretched mortals fear | R |
| And winds that on their wings cold winter bear | Q |
| Nor were those blustring brethren left at large | S |
| On seas and shores their fury to discharge | S |
| Bound as they are and circumscrib'd in place | C |
| They rend the world resistless where they pass | C |
| And mighty marks of mischief leave behind | B |
| Such is the rage of their tempestuous kind | B |
| First Eurus to the rising morn is sent | B |
| The regions of the balmy continent | B |
| And Eastern realms where early Persians run | H |
| To greet the blest appearance of the sun | H |
| Westward the wanton Zephyr wings his flight | B |
| Pleas'd with the remnants of departing light | B |
| Fierce Boreas with his off spring issues forth | T |
| T' invade the frozen waggon of the North | T |
| While frowning Auster seeks the Southern sphere | R |
| And rots with endless rain th' unwholsom year | R |
| High o'er the clouds and empty realms of wind | B |
| The God a clearer space for Heav'n design'd | B |
| Where fields of light and liquid aether flow | I |
| Purg'd from the pondrous dregs of Earth below | I |
| Scarce had the Pow'r distinguish'd these when | H |
| streight | B |
| The stars no longer overlaid with weight | B |
| Exert their heads from underneath the mass | C |
| And upward shoot and kindle as they pass | C |
| And with diffusive light adorn their heav'nly | I |
| place | C |
| Then every void of Nature to supply | I |
| With forms of Gods he fills the vacant sky | I |
| New herds of beasts he sends the plains to share | Q |
| New colonies of birds to people air | Q |
| And to their oozy beds the finny fish repair | Q |
| A creature of a more exalted kind | B |
| Was wanting yet and then was Man design'd | B |
| Conscious of thought of more capacious breast | B |
| For empire form'd and fit to rule the rest | B |
| Whether with particles of heav'nly fire | J |
| The God of Nature did his soul inspire | K |
| Or Earth but new divided from the sky | I |
| And pliant still retain'd th' aetherial energy | N |
| Which wise Prometheus temper'd into paste | B |
| And mixt with living streams the godlike image | U |
| cast | B |
| Thus while the mute creation downward bend | B |
| Their sight and to their earthly mother tend | B |
| Man looks aloft and with erected eyes | C |
| Beholds his own hereditary skies | C |
| From such rude principles our form began | H |
| And earth was metamorphos'd into Man | H |
| The The golden age was first when Man yet new | H |
| Golden Age No rule but uncorrupted reason knew | H |
| And with a native bent did good pursue | H |
| Unforc'd by punishment un aw'd by fear | R |
| His words were simple and his soul sincere | R |
| Needless was written law where none opprest | B |
| The law of Man was written in his breast | B |
| No suppliant crowds before the judge appear'd | B |
| No court erected yet nor cause was heard | B |
| But all was safe for conscience was their guard | B |
| The mountain trees in distant prospect please | C |
| E're yet the pine des | C |
Ovid
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