Book III I
Qui serere ingenuum uolet agrum,Liberat arua prius fruticibus,Falce rubos filicemque resecat,Vt noua fruge grauis Ceres eat.Dulcior est apium mage labor,Si malus ora prius sapor edat.Gratius astra nitent ubi NotusDesinit imbriferos dare sonos.Lucifer ut tenebras pepuleritPulchra dies roseos agit equos.Tu quoque falsa tuens bona priusIncipe colla iugo retrahere.Vera dehinc animum subierint."
He that a fruitful field will sow,Doth first the ground from bushes free,All fern and briars likewise mow,That he his harvest great may see.Honey seems sweeter to our taste,If cloyed with noisome food it be.Stars clearer shine when Notus' blastHath ceased the rainy storms to breed.When Lucifer hath night defaced,The day's bright horses then succeed.So thou, whom seeming goods do feed,First shake off yokes which so thee pressThat Truth may then thy mind possess."
Words in this poem
- ceres n.
- The daughter of Saturn and Ops or Rhea, the goddess of corn and tillage. [L., Ceres, also corn, grain, akin to E. create.]
- mage n.
- A magician. Spenser. [F. mage. See Magi.]
- sapor n.
- Power of affecting the organs of taste; savor; flavor; taste. [L. See Savor.]
- notus n.
- The south wind.
- noisome a.
- Noxious to health; hurtful; mischievous; unwholesome; insalubrious; destructive; as, noisome effluvia. [For noysome, fr. noy for annoy. See Annoy.]
- clearer n.
- One who, or that which, clears.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Book III I is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Theological Tractates and The Consolation of Philosophy, Project Gutenberg ebook #13316; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Boethius, Book III I, in The Consolation of Philosophy (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13316, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/boethius-consolation/book-iii-i.html, id L23711.
Form and metre
Book III I is 26 lines in 2 stanzas of 13 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 --A--A------- agrum · fruticibus · resecatA · eat · labor · edatA · notus · sonos · pepulerit · equos · prius · retrahere · subierint
- 2 ABABCB-DCDDEE sowA · freeB · mowA · seeB · tasteC · beB · blast · breedD · defacedC · succeedD · feedD · pressE · possessE
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Qui serere ingenuum uolet agrum, | 10 | ·········· |
| Liberat arua prius fruticibus, | 10 | ·········· |
| Falce rubos filicemque resecat, | 9 | ········· |
| Vt noua fruge grauis Ceres eat. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Dulcior est apium mage labor, | 9 | ··˘/···/˘ |
| Si malus ora prius sapor edat. | 10 | ···/˘·/˘·· |
| Gratius astra nitent ubi Notus | 10 | ··/˘····/˘ |
| Desinit imbriferos dare sonos. | 10 | ·········· |
| Lucifer ut tenebras pepulerit | 10 | /˘········ |
| Pulchra dies roseos agit equos. | 9 | ········· |
| Tu quoque falsa tuens bona prius | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Incipe colla iugo retrahere. | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Vera dehinc animum subierint." | 10 | /˘········ |
| He that a fruitful field will sow, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Doth first the ground from bushes free, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| All fern and briars likewise mow, | 8 | ···/˘/·· |
| That he his harvest great may see. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Honey seems sweeter to our taste, | 8 | /˘·/˘·/· |
| If cloyed with noisome food it be. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Stars clearer shine when Notus' blast | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Hath ceased the rainy storms to breed. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| When Lucifer hath night defaced, | 8 | ·/˘˘··˘/ |
| The day's bright horses then succeed. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| So thou, whom seeming goods do feed, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| First shake off yokes which so thee press | 8 | ········ |
| That Truth may then thy mind possess." | 8 | ······˘/ |
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.