Thebais - Book One - Part I Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Fraternal rage the guilty Thebes alarms	A
Th alternate reign destroyed by impious arms	A
Demand our song a sacred fury fires	B
My ravished breast and all the muse inspires	C
O goddess say shall I deduce my rhymes	D
From the dire nation in its early times	D
Europa s rape Agenor s stern decree	E
And Cadmus searching round the spacious sea	E
How with the serpent s teeth he sowed the soil	F
And reaped an iron harvest of his toil	F
Or how from joining stones the city sprung	G
While to his harp divine Amphion sung	G
Or shall I Juno s hate to Thebes resound	H
Whose fatal rage th unhappy monarch found	H
The sire against the son his arrows drew	I
O er the wide fields the furious mother flew	I
And while her arms a second hope contain	J
Sprung from the rocks and plunged into the main	J
But waive whate er to Cadmus may belong	K
And fix O muse the barrier of thy song	K
At dipus from his disasters trace	L
The long confusions of his guilty race	L
Nor yet attempt to stretch thy bolder wing	M
And mighty C sar s conqu ring eagles sing	M
How twice he tamed proud Ister s rapid flood	N
While Dacian mountains streamed with barb rous blood	N
Twice taught the Rhine beneath his laws to roll	O
And stretched his empire to the frozen pole	O
Or long before with early valour strove	P
In youthful arms t assert the cause of Jove	P
And thou great heir of all thy father s fame	Q
Increase of glory to the Latian name	Q
Oh bless thy Rome with an eternal reign	J
Nor let desiring worlds entreat in vain	J
What though the stars contract their heav nly space	L
And crowd their shining ranks to yield thee place	L
Though all the skies ambitious of thy sway	R
Conspire to court thee from our world away	R
Though Ph bus longs to mix his rays with thine	S
And in thy glories more serenely shine	S
Though Jove himself no less content would be	E
To part his throne and share his heaven with thee	E
Yet stay great C sar and vouchsafe to reign	J
O er the wide earth and o er the wat ry main	J
Resign to Jove his empire of the skies	T
And people heav n with Roman deities	U
The time will come when a diviner flame	Q
Shall warm my breast to sing of C sar s fame	Q
Meanwhile permit that my preluding muse	V
In Theban wars an humbler theme may chuse	V
Of furious hate surviving death she sings	W
A fatal throne to two contending kings	W
And fun ral flames that parting wide in air	X
Express the discord of the souls they bear	X
Of towns dispeopled and the wand ring ghosts	Y
Of kings unburied in the wasted coasts	Y
When Dirce s fountain blushed with Grecian blood	N
And Thetis near Ismenos swelling flood	N
With dread beheld the rolling surges sweep	Z
In heaps his slaughtered sons into the deep	Z
What hero Clie wilt thou first relate	A2
The rage of Tydeus or the prophet s fate	A2
Or how with hills of slain on ev ry side	B2
Hippomedon repelled the hostile tide	B2
Or how the youth with ev ry grace adorned	C2
Untimely fell to be for ever mourned	C2
Then to fierce Capaneus thy verse extend	D2
And sing with horror his prodigious end	D2
Now wretched dipus deprived of sight	E2
Led a long death in everlasting night	E2
But while he dwells where not a cheerful ray	R
Can pierce the darkness and abhors the day	R
The clear reflecting mind presents his sin	F2
In frightful views and makes it day within	F2
Returning thoughts in endless circles roll	O
And thousand furies haunt his guilty soul	O
The wretch then lifted to th unpitying skies	T
Those empty orbs from whence he tore his eyes	T
Whose wounds yet fresh with bloody hands he strook	M
While from his breast these dreadful accents broke	M
Ye gods that o er the gloomy regions reign	J
Where guilty spirits feel eternal pain	J
Thou sable Styx whose livid streams are rolled	G2
Through dreary coasts which I though blind behold	G2
Tisiphone that oft hast heard my pray r	H2
Assist if dipus deserve thy care	X
If you received me from Jocasta s womb	I2
And nursed the hope of mischiefs yet to come	J2
If leaving Polybus I took my way	R
To Cirrha s temple on that fatal day	R
When by the son the trembling father died	B2
Where the three roads the Phocian fields divide	B2
If I the Sphinx s riddles durst explain	J
Taught by thyself to win the promised reign	J
If wretched I by baleful furies led	K2
With monstrous mixture stained my mother s bed	K2
For hell and thee begot an impious brood	L2
And with full lust those horrid joys renewed	L2
Then se f condemned to shades of endless night	E2
Forced from these orbs the bleeding balls of sight	E2
If worthy thee and what thou mightst inspire	M2
Oh hear and aid the vengeance I require	N2
My sons their old unhappy sire despise	T
Spoiled of his kingdom and deprived of eyes	T
Guideless I wander unregarded mourn	O2
Whilst these exalt their sceptres o er my urn	P2
These sons ye gods who with flagitious pride	B2
Insult my darkness and my groans deride	B2
Art thou a father unregarding Jove	P
And sleeps thy thunder in the realms above	P
Thou fury then some lasting curse entail	Q2
Which o er their children s children shall prevail	Q2
Place on their heads that crown distained with gore	R2
Which these dire hands from my slain father tore	R2
Go and a parent s heavy curses bear	X
Break all the bonds of nature and prepare	X
Their kindred souls to mutual hate and war	R2
Give them to dare what I might wish to see	E
Blind as I am some glorious villainy	P2
Soon shalt thou find if thou but arm their hands	S2
Their ready guilt preventing thy commands	S2
Couldst thou some great proportioned mischief frame	Q
They d prove the father from whose loins they came	Q
The fury heard while on Cocytus brink	M
Her snakes untied sulphureous waters drink	M
But at the summons rolled her eyes around	H
And snatched the starting serpents from the ground	H
Not half so swiftly shoots along in air	X
The gliding lightning or descending star	H2
Through crowds of airy shades she winged her flight	E2
And dark dominions of the silent night	E2
Swift as she passed the flitting ghosts withdrew	I
And the pale spectres trembled at her view	I
To th iron gates of T narus she flies	T
There spreads her dusky pinions to the skies	T
The day beheld and sick ning at the sight	E2
Yelled her fair glories in the shades of night	E2
Affrighted Atlas on the distant shore	R2
Trembled and shook the heav ns and gods he bore	R2
Now from beneath Malea s airy height	E2
Aloft she sprung and steered to Thebes her flight	E2
With eager speed the well known journey took	M
Nor here regrets the hell she late forsook	M
A hundred snakes her gloomy visage shade	T2
A hundred serpents guard her horrid head	K2
In her sunk eye balls dreadful meteors glow	U2
Such rays from Ph be s bloody circle flow	U2
When lab ring with strong charms she shoots from high	P
A fiery gleam and reddens all the sky	P
Blood stained her cheeks and from her mouth there came tie	P
Blue steaming poisons and a length of flame	Q
From ev ry blast of her contagious breath	V2
Famine and drought proceed and plagues and death	V2

Pablius Papinius Statius

Thebais - Book One - Part I Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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