Thebais - Book One - Part Ii Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDEFGHHHIJKKLLMMN NNOPQQAARRSSEETTEUTT VVDEWWXXYYVVZZA2A2B2 B2C2C2TTQQAD2TTAAE2E 2VVEDTTF2F2WWEEDVVCC TTVVWWHHWWQQG2H2WI2J 2J2AAWWK2K2H2H2VVQQQ QQQTTQAAL2L2HHQQH2H2 QQQQTTSSVVTTA robe obscene was o er her shoulders thrown | A |
A dress by fates and furies worn alone us | B |
She tossed her meagre arms her better hand | C |
In waving circles whirled a fun ral brand | C |
A serpent from her left was seen to rear | D |
His flaming crest and lash the yielding air | E |
But when the fury took her stand on high too | F |
Where vast Oitheron s top salutes the sky | G |
A hiss from all the snaky tire went round | H |
The dreadful signal all the rocks rebound | H |
And through th Aobaian cities send the sound | H |
te with high Parnassus heard the voice | I |
Eurotas banks remurmured to the noise | J |
Again Leucothea shook at these alarms | K |
And pressed Pal mon closer in her arms | K |
Headlong from thence the glowing fury springs | L |
And o er the Theban palace spreads her wings | L |
Once more invades the guilty dome and shrouds | M |
Its bright pavilions in a veil of clouds | M |
Straight with the rage of all their race possessed | N |
Stung to the soul the brothers start from rest | N |
And all their furies wake within their breast | N |
Their tortured minds repining envy tears | O |
And hate engendered by suspicious fears | P |
And sacred thirst of sway and all the ties | Q |
Of nature broke and royal perjuries | Q |
And impotent desire to reign alone | A |
That scorns the dull reversion of a throne | A |
Each would the sweets of sov reign rule devour | R |
While discord waits upon divided power | R |
As stubborn steers by brawny plowmen broke | S |
And joined reluctant to the galling yoke | S |
Alike disdain with servile necks to bear | E |
Th unwonted weight or drag the crooked share | E |
But rend the reins and bound a diff rent way | T |
And all the furrows in confusion lay | T |
Such was the discord of the royal pair | E |
Whom fury drove precipitate to war | U |
In vain the chiefs contrived a specious way | T |
To govern Thebes by their alternate sway | T |
Unjust decree while this enjoys the state | V |
That mourns in exile his unequal fate | V |
And the short monarch of a hasty year | D |
Foresees with anguish his returning heir | E |
Thus did the league their impious arms restrain | W |
But scarce subsisted to the second reign | W |
Yet then no proud aspiring piles were raised | X |
No fretted roofs with polished metals blazed | X |
No laboured columns in long order placed | Y |
No Grecian stone the pompous arches graced | Y |
No nightly bands in glitt ring armour wait | V |
Before the sleepless tyrant s guarded gate | V |
No chargers then were wrought in burnished gold | Z |
Nor silver vases took the forming mold | Z |
Nor gems on bowls embossed were seen to shine | A2 |
Blaze on the brims and sparkle in the wine | A2 |
Say wretched rivals what provokes your rage | B2 |
Say to what end your impious arms engage | B2 |
Not all bright Ph bus views in early morn | C2 |
Or when his ev ning beams the west adorn | C2 |
When the south glows with his meridian ray | T |
And the cold north receives a fainter day | T |
For crimes like these not all those realms suffice | Q |
Were all those realms the guilty victor s prize | Q |
But fortune now the lots of empire thrown | A |
Decrees to proud Eteocles the crown | D2 |
What joys oh tyrant swelled thy soul that day | T |
When all were slaves thou couldst around survey | T |
Pleased to behold unbounded power thy own | A |
And singly fill a feared and envied throne | A |
But the vile vulgar ever discontent | E2 |
Their growing fears in secret murmurs vent | E2 |
Still prone to change though still the slaves of state | V |
And sure the monarch whom they have to hate | V |
New lords they madly make then tamely bear | E |
And softly curse tile tyrants whom they fear | D |
And one of those who groan beneath the sway | T |
Of kings imposed and grudgingly obey | T |
Whom envy to the great and vulgar spite | F2 |
With scandal armed th ignoble mind s delight | F2 |
Exclaimed O Thebes for thee what fates remain | W |
What woes attend this inauspicious reign | W |
Must we alas our doubtful necks prepare | E |
Each haughty master s yoke by turns to bear | E |
And still to change whom changed we still must fear | D |
These now control a wretched people s fate | V |
These can divide and these reverse the state | V |
Ev n fortune rules no more O servile land | C |
Where exiled tyrants still by turns command | C |
Thou sire of gods and men imperial Jove | T |
Is this th eternal doom decreed above | T |
On thy own offspring hast thou fixed this fate | V |
From the first birth of our unhappy state | V |
When banished Cadmus wand ring o er the main | W |
For lost Europa searched the world in vain | W |
And fated in B otian fields to found | H |
A rising empire on a foreign ground | H |
First raised our walls on that ill omened plain | W |
Where earth born brothers were by brothers slain | W |
What lofty looks th unrivalled monarch bears | Q |
How all the tyrant in his face appears | Q |
What sullen fury clouds his scornful brow | G2 |
Gods how his eyes with threat ning ardour glow | H2 |
Can this imperious lord forget to reign | W |
Quit all his state descend and serve again | I2 |
Yet who before mere popularly bowed | J2 |
Who more propitious to the suppliant crowd | J2 |
Patient of right familiar in the throne | A |
What wonder then he was not then alone | A |
O wretched we a vile submissive train | W |
Fortune s tame fools and slaves in ev ry reign | W |
As when two winds with rival force contend | K2 |
This way and that the wav ring sails they bend | K2 |
While freezing Boreas and black Eurus blow | H2 |
Now here now there tho reeling vessel throw | H2 |
Thus on each side alas our tott ring state | V |
Feels all the fury of resistless fate | V |
And doubtful still and still distracted stands | Q |
While that prince threatens and while this commands | Q |
And now th almighty father of the gods | Q |
Convenes a council in the blest abodes | Q |
Far in the bright recesses of the skies | Q |
high o er the rolling heav ns a mansion lies | Q |
Whence far below the gods at once survey | T |
The realms of rising and declining day | T |
And all lii extended space of earth and air and sea | Q |
Full in the midst and on a starry throne | A |
The majesty of heav n superior shone | A |
Serene he looked and gave an awful nod | L2 |
And all the trembling spheres confessed the god | L2 |
At Jove s assent the deities around | H |
In solemn state the consistory crowned | H |
Next a long order of inferior pow rs | Q |
Ascend from hills and plains and shady bow rs | Q |
Those from whose urns the rolling rivers flow | H2 |
And those that give the wand ring winds to blow | H2 |
Here all their rage and ev n their murmurs cease | Q |
And sacred silence reigns and universal peace | Q |
A shining synod of majestic gods | Q |
Gilds with new lustre the divine abodes | Q |
Heav n seems improved with a superior ray | T |
And the bright arch reflects a double day | T |
The monarch then his solemn silence broke | S |
The still creation listened while he spoke | S |
Each sacred accent bears eternal weight | V |
And each irrevocable word is fate | V |
How long shall man the wrath of heav n defy | T |
And force unwilling vengeance from the sky | T |
Pablius Papinius Statius
(1)
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