Symmachi Versvs
Fortunae et uirtutis opus, Seuerine Boethi,E patria pulsus non tua per scelera,Tandem ignotus habes qui te colat, ut tua uirtusVt tua fortuna promeruitquePost obitum dant fata locum, post fata superstesVxoris propriae te quoque fama colit.
Words in this poem
- opus n.
- A work; specif. (Mus.), a musical composition. [L. See Opera.]
- tandem adv.
- One after another; -- said especially of horses harnessed and driven one before another, instead of abreast. [L. tandem at length (of time only), punningly taken as meaning, lengthwise.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Symmachi Versvs 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, Symmachi Versvs, in The Consolation of Philosophy (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13316, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/boethius-consolation/symmachi-versvs.html, id L23733.
Form and metre
Symmachi Versvs is 6 lines in a single stanza. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Fortunae et uirtutis opus, Seuerine Boethi, | 12 | ······/˘···· |
| E patria pulsus non tua per scelera, | 11 | ··········· |
| Tandem ignotus habes qui te colat, ut tua uirtus | 14 | /˘············ |
| Vt tua fortuna promeruitque | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Post obitum dant fata locum, post fata superstes | 14 | ·····/˘···/˘·· |
| Vxoris propriae te quoque fama colit. | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
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.