Thebais - Book One - Part Iv Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBAACCDDAAEEFFGGHH GGIIJJCCGGHHHHGGIIKK CCLLCCCCCCCCCCCFFHHH HHHCCAACCAACCCCHHCCI IHHHHCCCCLMHHCCNNCCI IAAFFCCHHFNHHHHCCCCC CHHHCCHHHHOOLKCCAACC PCFFCCCCQQHHCCHHHHHH CCCCHHHFor by the black infernal Styx I swear | A |
That dreadful oath which binds the thunderer | A |
Tis fixed th irrevocable doom of Jove | B |
No force can bend me no persuasion move | B |
haste then Cyllenius through the liquid air | A |
Go mount the winds and to the shades repair | A |
Bid hell s black monarch my commands obey | C |
And give up Laius to the realms of day | C |
Whose ghost yet shiv ring on Cocytus sand | D |
Expects its passage to thc further strand | D |
Let the pale sire revisit Thebes and bear | A |
These pleasing orders to the tyrant s ear | A |
That from his exiled brother swelled with pride | E |
Of foreign forces and his Argive bride | E |
Almighty Jove commands him to detain | F |
The promised empire and alternate reign | F |
Be this the cause of more than mortal hate | G |
The rest succeeding times shall ripen into fate | G |
The god obeys and to his feet applies | H |
Those golden wings that cut the yielding skies | H |
His ample hat his beamy locks o erspread | G |
And veiled the starry glories of his head | G |
He seized the wand that causes sleep to fly | I |
Or in soft slumbers seals the wakeful eye | I |
That drives the dead to dark Tartarcan coasts | J |
Or back to life compels the wand ring ghosts | J |
Thus through the parting clouds the son of May | C |
Wings on the whistling winds his rapid way | C |
Now smoothly steers through air his equal flight | G |
Now springs aloft and tow rs th ethereal height | G |
Then wheeling down the steep of heav n he flies | H |
And draws a radiant circle o er the skies | H |
Meantime the banished Polynices roves | H |
his Thebes abandoned through th Aonian groves | H |
While future realms his wand ring thoughts delight | G |
His daily vision and his dream by night | G |
Forbidden Thebes appears before his eye | I |
From whence he sees his absent brother fly | I |
With transport views the airy rule his own | K |
And swells on an imaginary throne | K |
Fain would he cast a tedious age away | C |
And live out all in one triumphant day | C |
He chides the lazy progress of the sun | L |
And bids the year with swifter motion run | L |
With anxious hopes his craving mind is tost | C |
And all his joys in length of wishes lost | C |
The hero then resolves his course to bend | C |
Where ancient Danaus fruitful fields extend | C |
And famed Mycene s lofty towers ascend | C |
Where late the sun did Atreus crimes detest | C |
And disappeared in horror of the feast | C |
And now by chance by fate or furies led | C |
From Bacehus consecrated caves he fled | C |
Where the shrill cries of frantic matrons sound | C |
And Pentheus blood enriched the rising ground | C |
Then sees Cithaeron tow ring o er the plain | F |
And thence declining gently to the main | F |
Next to the bounds of Nisus realm repairs | H |
Where treach rous Scylla cut the purple hairs | H |
The hanging cliffs of Sciron s rock explores | H |
And hears the murmurs of the diff rent shores | H |
Passes the strait that parts the foaming seas | H |
And stately Corinth s pleasing site surveys | H |
Twas now the time when Ph bus yields to night | C |
And rising Cynthia sheds her silver light | C |
Wide o er the world in solemn pomp she drew | A |
Her airy chariot hung with pearly dew | A |
All birds and beasts lie hushed sleep steals away | C |
The wild desires of men and toils of day | C |
And brings descending through the silent air | A |
A sweet forgetfulness of human care | A |
Yet no red clouds with golden borders gay | C |
Promise the skies the bright return of day | C |
No faint reflections of the distant light | C |
Streak with long gleams the scatt ring shades of night | C |
From the damp earth impervious vapours rise | H |
Encrease the darkness and involve the skies | H |
At once the rushing winds with roaring sound | C |
Burst from th olian caves and rend the ground | C |
With equal rage their airy quarrel try | I |
And win by turns the kingdom of the sky | I |
But with a thicker night black Auster shrouds | H |
The heav ns and drives on heaps the rolling clouds | H |
From whose dark womb a rattling tempest pours | H |
Which the cold north congeals to haily show rs | H |
From pole to pole the thunder roars aloud | C |
And broken lightnings flash from ev ry cloud | C |
Now smoaks with show rs the misty mountain ground | C |
And floated fields lie undistinguished round | C |
Th Inachian streams with headlong fury run | L |
And Erasmus rolls a deluge on | M |
The foaming Lerna swells above its bounds | H |
And spreads its ancient poisons o er the grounds | H |
Where late was dust now rapid torrents play | C |
Rush through the mounds and bear the dams away | C |
Old limbs of trees from crackling forests torn | N |
Are whirled in air and on the winds are borne | N |
The storm the dark Lyc an groves displayed | C |
And first to light exposed the sacred shade | C |
Th intrepid Theban hears the bursting sky | I |
Sees yawning rocks in massy fragments fly | I |
And views astonished from the hills afar | A |
The floods descending and the wat ry war | A |
That driv n by storms and pouring o er the plain | F |
Swept herds and hinds and houses to the main | F |
Through the brown horrors of the night he fled | C |
Nor knows amazed what doubtful path to tread | C |
His brother s image to his mind appears | H |
Inflames his heart with rage and wings his feet with fears | H |
So fares a sailor on the stormy main | F |
When clouds conceal Bo tes golden warn | N |
When not a star its friendly lustre keeps | H |
Nor trembling Cynthia glimmers on the deeps | H |
He dreads the rocks and shoals and seas and skies | H |
While thunder roars and lightning round him flies | H |
Thus strove the chief on every side distressed | C |
Thus still his courage with his toils increased | C |
With his broad shield opposed he forced his way | C |
Through thickest woods and roused the beasts of prey | C |
Till he beheld where from Larissa s height | C |
The shelving walls reflect a glancing light | C |
Thither with haste the Theban hero flies | H |
On this side Lerna s pois nous water lies | H |
On that Prosymna s grove and temple rise | H |
lie passed the gates which then unguarded lay | C |
And to the regal palace bent his way | C |
On the cold marble spent with toil he lies | H |
And waits till pleasing slumbers seal his eyes | H |
Adrastus here his happy people sways | H |
Blest with calm peace in his declining days | H |
By both his parents of descent divine | O |
Great Jove and Ph bus graced his noble line | O |
Heaven had not crowned his wishes with a son | L |
But two fair daughters heired his state and throne | K |
To him Apollo wondrous to relate | C |
But who can pierce into the depths of fate | C |
Had sung Expect thy sons on Argos shore | A |
A yellow lion and a bristly boar | A |
This long revolved in his paternal breast | C |
Sate heavy on his heart and broke his rest | C |
This great Amphiaraus lay hid from thee | P |
Though skilled in fate and dark futurity | C |
The father s care and prophet s art were vain | F |
For thus did the predicting god ordain | F |
Lo hapless Tydeus whose ill fated hand | C |
Had slain his brother leaves his native land | C |
And seized with horror in the shades of night | C |
Through the thick deserts headlong urged his flight | C |
Now by the fury of the tempest driv n | Q |
He seeks a shelter from th inclement heav n | Q |
Till led by fate the Theban s steps he treads | H |
And to fair Argos open court succeeds | H |
When thus the chiefs from diff rent lands resort | C |
T Adrastus realms and hospitable court | C |
The king surveys his guests with curious eyes | H |
And views their arms and habit with surprise | H |
A lion s yellow skin the Theban wears | H |
horrid his mane and rough with curling hairs | H |
Such once employed Alcides youthful toils | H |
Ere yet adorned with Nemea s dreadful spoils | H |
A boar s stiff hide of Calydonian breed | C |
nides manly shoulders overspread | C |
Oblique his tusks erect his bristles stood | C |
Alive the pride and terror of the wood | C |
Struck with the sight and fixed in deep amaze | H |
The King th accomplished oracle surveys | H |
Reveres | H |
Pablius Papinius Statius
(1)
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