Metamorphoses: Book The Twelfth Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDCEFGGHIIJJFFHHKK GGLMNGBOODDPPQRBBSST TTTDDTDTTTUVUTTTTFDF DWDTTTXXTTTTDDIIDDFF XFBBDDTTBBYVYTZTBBUU TTBBTTFFBBTTTTWVVUUE YIITTBBEF| PRIAM to whom the story was unknown | A |
| As dead deplor'd his metamorphos'd son | B |
| A cenotaph his name and title kept | C |
| And Hector round the tomb with all his brothers | D |
| wept | C |
| This pious office Paris did not share | E |
| Absent alone and author of the war | F |
| Which for the Spartan queen the Grecians drew | G |
| T' avenge the rape and Asia to subdue | G |
| The A thousand ships were mann'd to sail the sea | H |
| Trojan War Nor had their just resentments found delay | I |
| Had not the winds and waves oppos'd their way | I |
| At Aulis with united pow'rs they meet | J |
| But there cross winds or calms detain'd the fleet | J |
| Now while they raise an altar on the shore | F |
| And Jove with solemn sacrifice adore | F |
| A boding sign the priests and people see | H |
| A snake of size immense ascends a tree | H |
| And in the leafie summit spy'd a nest | K |
| Which o'er her callow young a sparrow press'd | K |
| Eight were the birds unfledg'd their mother flew | G |
| And hover'd round her care but still in view | G |
| 'Till the fierce reptile first devour'd the brood | L |
| Then seiz'd the flutt'ring dam and drunk her | M |
| blood | N |
| This dire ostent the fearful people view | G |
| Calchas alone by Phoebus taught foreknew | B |
| What Heav'n decreed and with a smiling glance | O |
| Thus gratulates to Greece her happy chance | O |
| O Argives we shall conquer Troy is ours | D |
| But long delays shall first afflict our pow'rs | D |
| Nine years of labour the nine birds portend | P |
| The tenth shall in the town's destruction end | P |
| The serpent who his maw obscene had fill'd | Q |
| The branches in his curl'd embraces held | R |
| But as in spires he stood he turn'd to stone | B |
| The stony snake retain'd the figure still his own | B |
| Yet not for this the wind bound navy weigh'd | S |
| Slack were their sails and Neptune disobey'd | S |
| Some thought him loth the town should be destroy'd | T |
| Whose building had his hands divine employ'd | T |
| Not so the seer who knew and known foreshow'd | T |
| The virgin Phoebe with a virgin's blood | T |
| Must first be reconcil'd the common cause | D |
| Prevail'd and pity yielding to the laws | D |
| Fair Iphigenia the devoted maid | T |
| Was by the weeping priests in linnen robes | D |
| array'd | T |
| All mourn her fate but no relief appear'd | T |
| The royal victim bound the knife already rear'd | T |
| When that offended Pow'r who caus'd their woe | U |
| Relenting ceas'd her wrath and stop'd the coming | V |
| blow | U |
| A mist before the ministers she cast | T |
| And in the virgin's room a hind she plac'd | T |
| Th' oblation slain and Phoebe reconcil'd | T |
| The storm was hush'd and dimpled ocean smil'd | T |
| A favourable gale arose from shore | F |
| Which to the port desir'd the Graecian gallies | D |
| bore | F |
| The House of Full in the midst of this created space | D |
| Fame Betwixt Heav'n Earth and skies there stands a | W |
| place | D |
| Confining on all three with triple bound | T |
| Whence all things tho' remote are view'd around | T |
| And thither bring their undulating sound | T |
| The palace of loud Fame her seat of pow'r | X |
| Plac'd on the summet of a lofty tow'r | X |
| A thousand winding entries long and wide | T |
| Receive of fresh reports a flowing tide | T |
| A thousand crannies in the walls are made | T |
| Nor gate nor bars exclude the busie trade | T |
| 'Tis built of brass the better to diffuse | D |
| The spreading sounds and multiply the news | D |
| Where eccho's in repeated eccho's play | I |
| A mart for ever full and open night and day | I |
| Nor silence is within nor voice express | D |
| But a deaf noise of sounds that never cease | D |
| Confus'd and chiding like the hollow roar | F |
| Of tides receding from th' insulted shore | F |
| Or like the broken thunder heard from far | X |
| When Jove at distance drives the rouling war | F |
| The courts are fill'd with a tumultuous din | B |
| Of crouds or issuing forth or entring in | B |
| A thorough fare of news where some devise | D |
| Things never heard some mingle truth with lies | D |
| The troubled air with empty sounds they beat | T |
| Intent to hear and eager to repeat | T |
| Error sits brooding there with added train | B |
| Of vain credulity and joys as vain | B |
| Suspicion with sedition join'd are near | Y |
| And rumours rais'd and murmurs mix'd and panique | V |
| fear | Y |
| Fame sits aloft and sees the subject ground | T |
| And seas about and skies above enquiring all | Z |
| around | T |
| The Goddess gives th' alarm and soon is known | B |
| The Grecian fleet descending on the town | B |
| Fix'd on defence the Trojans are not slow | U |
| To guard their shore from an expected foe | U |
| They meet in fight by Hector's fatal hand | T |
| Protesilaus falls and bites the strand | T |
| Which with expence of blood the Grecians won | B |
| And prov'd the strength unknown of Priam's son | B |
| And to their cost the Trojan leaders felt | T |
| The Grecian heroes and what deaths they dealt | T |
| The Story of From these first onsets the Sigaean shore | F |
| Cygnus Was strew'd with carcasses and stain'd with gore | F |
| Neptunian Cygnus troops of Greeks had slain | B |
| Achilles in his carr had scour'd the plain | B |
| And clear'd the Trojan ranks where e'er he fought | T |
| Cygnus or Hector through the fields he sought | T |
| Cygnus he found on him his force essay'd | T |
| For Hector was to the tenth year delay'd | T |
| His white main'd steeds that bow'd beneath the | W |
| yoke | V |
| He chear'd to courage with a gentle stroke | V |
| Then urg'd his fiery chariot on the foe | U |
| And rising shook his lance in act to throw | U |
| But first he cry'd O youth be proud to bear | E |
| Thy death ennobled by Pelides' spear | Y |
| The lance pursu'd the voice without delay | I |
| Nor did the whizzing weapon miss the way | I |
| But pierc'd his cuirass with such fury sent | T |
| And sign'd his bosom with a purple dint | T |
| At this the seed of Neptune Goddess born | B |
| For ornament not use these arms are worn | B |
| This helm and heavy buckler I can spare | E |
| As only decorations of the war | F |
Ovid
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