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

Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDEFGHHHIJKKLLMMN NNOPQQAARRSSEETTEUTT VVDEWWXXYYVVZZA2A2B2 B2C2C2TTQQAD2TTAAE2E 2VVEDTTF2F2WWEEDVVCC TTVVWWHHWWQQG2H2WI2J 2J2AAWWK2K2H2H2VVQQQ QQQTTQAAL2L2HHQQH2H2 QQQQTTSSVVTT

A robe obscene was o er her shoulders thrownA
A dress by fates and furies worn alone usB
She tossed her meagre arms her better handC
In waving circles whirled a fun ral brandC
A serpent from her left was seen to rearD
His flaming crest and lash the yielding airE
But when the fury took her stand on high tooF
Where vast Oitheron s top salutes the skyG
A hiss from all the snaky tire went roundH
The dreadful signal all the rocks reboundH
And through th Aobaian cities send the soundH
te with high Parnassus heard the voiceI
Eurotas banks remurmured to the noiseJ
Again Leucothea shook at these alarmsK
And pressed Pal mon closer in her armsK
Headlong from thence the glowing fury springsL
And o er the Theban palace spreads her wingsL
Once more invades the guilty dome and shroudsM
Its bright pavilions in a veil of cloudsM
Straight with the rage of all their race possessedN
Stung to the soul the brothers start from restN
And all their furies wake within their breastN
Their tortured minds repining envy tearsO
And hate engendered by suspicious fearsP
And sacred thirst of sway and all the tiesQ
Of nature broke and royal perjuriesQ
And impotent desire to reign aloneA
That scorns the dull reversion of a throneA
Each would the sweets of sov reign rule devourR
While discord waits upon divided powerR
As stubborn steers by brawny plowmen brokeS
And joined reluctant to the galling yokeS
Alike disdain with servile necks to bearE
Th unwonted weight or drag the crooked shareE
But rend the reins and bound a diff rent wayT
And all the furrows in confusion layT
Such was the discord of the royal pairE
Whom fury drove precipitate to warU
In vain the chiefs contrived a specious wayT
To govern Thebes by their alternate swayT
Unjust decree while this enjoys the stateV
That mourns in exile his unequal fateV
And the short monarch of a hasty yearD
Foresees with anguish his returning heirE
Thus did the league their impious arms restrainW
But scarce subsisted to the second reignW
Yet then no proud aspiring piles were raisedX
No fretted roofs with polished metals blazedX
No laboured columns in long order placedY
No Grecian stone the pompous arches gracedY
No nightly bands in glitt ring armour waitV
Before the sleepless tyrant s guarded gateV
No chargers then were wrought in burnished goldZ
Nor silver vases took the forming moldZ
Nor gems on bowls embossed were seen to shineA2
Blaze on the brims and sparkle in the wineA2
Say wretched rivals what provokes your rageB2
Say to what end your impious arms engageB2
Not all bright Ph bus views in early mornC2
Or when his ev ning beams the west adornC2
When the south glows with his meridian rayT
And the cold north receives a fainter dayT
For crimes like these not all those realms sufficeQ
Were all those realms the guilty victor s prizeQ
But fortune now the lots of empire thrownA
Decrees to proud Eteocles the crownD2
What joys oh tyrant swelled thy soul that dayT
When all were slaves thou couldst around surveyT
Pleased to behold unbounded power thy ownA
And singly fill a feared and envied throneA
But the vile vulgar ever discontentE2
Their growing fears in secret murmurs ventE2
Still prone to change though still the slaves of stateV
And sure the monarch whom they have to hateV
New lords they madly make then tamely bearE
And softly curse tile tyrants whom they fearD
And one of those who groan beneath the swayT
Of kings imposed and grudgingly obeyT
Whom envy to the great and vulgar spiteF2
With scandal armed th ignoble mind s delightF2
Exclaimed O Thebes for thee what fates remainW
What woes attend this inauspicious reignW
Must we alas our doubtful necks prepareE
Each haughty master s yoke by turns to bearE
And still to change whom changed we still must fearD
These now control a wretched people s fateV
These can divide and these reverse the stateV
Ev n fortune rules no more O servile landC
Where exiled tyrants still by turns commandC
Thou sire of gods and men imperial JoveT
Is this th eternal doom decreed aboveT
On thy own offspring hast thou fixed this fateV
From the first birth of our unhappy stateV
When banished Cadmus wand ring o er the mainW
For lost Europa searched the world in vainW
And fated in B otian fields to foundH
A rising empire on a foreign groundH
First raised our walls on that ill omened plainW
Where earth born brothers were by brothers slainW
What lofty looks th unrivalled monarch bearsQ
How all the tyrant in his face appearsQ
What sullen fury clouds his scornful browG2
Gods how his eyes with threat ning ardour glowH2
Can this imperious lord forget to reignW
Quit all his state descend and serve againI2
Yet who before mere popularly bowedJ2
Who more propitious to the suppliant crowdJ2
Patient of right familiar in the throneA
What wonder then he was not then aloneA
O wretched we a vile submissive trainW
Fortune s tame fools and slaves in ev ry reignW
As when two winds with rival force contendK2
This way and that the wav ring sails they bendK2
While freezing Boreas and black Eurus blowH2
Now here now there tho reeling vessel throwH2
Thus on each side alas our tott ring stateV
Feels all the fury of resistless fateV
And doubtful still and still distracted standsQ
While that prince threatens and while this commandsQ
And now th almighty father of the godsQ
Convenes a council in the blest abodesQ
Far in the bright recesses of the skiesQ
high o er the rolling heav ns a mansion liesQ
Whence far below the gods at once surveyT
The realms of rising and declining dayT
And all lii extended space of earth and air and seaQ
Full in the midst and on a starry throneA
The majesty of heav n superior shoneA
Serene he looked and gave an awful nodL2
And all the trembling spheres confessed the godL2
At Jove s assent the deities aroundH
In solemn state the consistory crownedH
Next a long order of inferior pow rsQ
Ascend from hills and plains and shady bow rsQ
Those from whose urns the rolling rivers flowH2
And those that give the wand ring winds to blowH2
Here all their rage and ev n their murmurs ceaseQ
And sacred silence reigns and universal peaceQ
A shining synod of majestic godsQ
Gilds with new lustre the divine abodesQ
Heav n seems improved with a superior rayT
And the bright arch reflects a double dayT
The monarch then his solemn silence brokeS
The still creation listened while he spokeS
Each sacred accent bears eternal weightV
And each irrevocable word is fateV
How long shall man the wrath of heav n defyT
And force unwilling vengeance from the skyT

Pablius Papinius Statius



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