Rome: On the Palatine
WE walked where Victor Jove was shrined awhile,And passed to Livia’s rich red mural show,Whence, thridding cave and Criptoportico,We gained Caligula’s dissolving pile.
And each ranked ruin tended to beguileThe outer sense, and shape itself as thoughIt wore its marble hues, its pristine glowOf scenic frieze and pompous peristyle.
When lo, swift hands, on strings nigh over-head,Began to melodize a waltz by Strauss:It stirred me as I stood, in Cæsar’s house,Raised the old routs Imperial lyres had led,
And blended pulsing life with lives long done,Till Time seemed fiction, Past and Present one.
Words in this poem
- jove n.
- The chief divinity of the ancient Romans; Jupiter. [L. Jupiter, gen. Jovis, OL. Jovis, nom. & gen. for Djovis; akin to E. Tuesday. See Tuesday, and cf. Jupiter.]
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
- mural a.
- Of or pertaining to a wall; being on, or in, a wall; growing on, or against, a wall; as, a mural quadrant. [F., fr. L. muralis, fr. murus wall. See Mure a wall.]
- scenic a.
- Of or pertaining to scenery; of the nature of scenery; theatrical. [L. scaenicus, scenicus, Gr. scénique. See Scene.]
- melodize v. t.
- To make melodious; to form into, or set to, melody.
- waltz n.
- A dance performed by two persons in circular figures with a whirling motion; also, a piece of music composed in triple measure for this kind of dance. [G. walzer, from walzen to roll, revolve, dance, OHG. walzan to roll; akin to AS. wealtan. See Welter.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Rome: On the Palatine is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of the Past and the Present, Project Gutenberg ebook #3168; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Hardy, Rome: On the Palatine, in Poems of the Past and the Present (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3168, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-past-and-present/rome-on-the-palatine.html, id L19080.
Form and metre
Rome: On the Palatine is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABBA awhileA · showB · criptoporticoB · pileA
- 2 ABBA beguileA · thoughB · glowB · peristyleA
- 3 ABBA headA · straussB · houseB · ledA
- 4 AA doneA · oneA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| WE walked where Victor Jove was shrined awhile, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| And passed to Livia’s rich red mural show, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Whence, thridding cave and Criptoportico, | 10 | ·········· |
| We gained Caligula’s dissolving pile. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| And each ranked ruin tended to beguile | 9 | ···//˘·˘/ |
| The outer sense, and shape itself as though | 9 | ·/···˘/·· |
| It wore its marble hues, its pristine glow | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Of scenic frieze and pompous peristyle. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| When lo, swift hands, on strings nigh over-head, | 9 | ········· |
| Began to melodize a waltz by Strauss: | 10 | ˘/·/˘˘···· |
| It stirred me as I stood, in Cæsar’s house, | 9 | ········· |
| Raised the old routs Imperial lyres had led, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| And blended pulsing life with lives long done, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Till Time seemed fiction, Past and Present one. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.