The rhyme scheme is Stanza 1 - A1; B; A2. Stanza 2 - A; B; A1. Stanza 3 - B [this would normally be A]; B; A2. Stanza 4 - A; B; A1. Stanza 5 - A; B; A2. Stanza 6 - A; B; A1; A2.

CLASSICAL REFERENCES:
This poem is very much of its time: full of classical references. I give some notes on these below:

* Theocritus was a Greek poet, the creator of pastoral poetry.
* Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, carried off by Hades to live with him in the Underworld every year for four months.
* Amaryllis was a shepherdess. The southern slopes of Mount Etna are noted for their lemon-yellow coloration.
* Simętha is a fire-monster of legend.
* Hecate was a Titaness, who had the same parentage as Persephone, and derived her power from the Moon. She is associated with witchcraft.
* Polypheme was a Cyclops, made drunk and then blinded by Odysseus.
* Daphnis was the son of a nymph, born in a laurel bush. In the Polyphemus myth he was famous for singing a song of the Cyclops.
* Lacon, or Laocoön, was a goat herd. Goats figure prominently in the Polyphemus story.

The whole is a celebration of the Polyphemus story and the Sicilian landscape. Every ten years or so Mount Etna (the Cyclops) erupts, as it did so tragically in 2002. This is supposed to coincide with the times that Polyphemus, the guardian at the heart of the mountain, slumbers.

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