Carmen CVII: To Lesbia Reconciled
An to one ever accrue any boon he lusted and longed forAny time after despair, grateful it comes to his soul.Thus 'tis grateful to us nor gold was ever so goodly,When thou restorest thyself (Lesbia!) to lovingmost me,Self thou restorest unhoped, and after despair thou returnest.Oh the fair light of a Day noted with notabler white!Where lives a happier man than myself or--this being won me--Who shall e'er boast that his life brought him more coveted lot?
Words in this poem
- accrue n.
- Something that accrues; advantage accruing. [F. accrû, OF. acreü, p. p. of accroitre, OF. acroistre to increase; L. ad + crescere to increase. Cf. Accretion, Crew. See Crescent.]
- boon n.
- A prayer or petition. [OE. bone, boin, a petition, fr. Icel. b; akin to Sw. & Dan. b, AS. b, and perh. to E. ban; but influenced by F. bon good, fr. L. bonus. Ban, Bounty.]
- goodly a.
- Pleasant; agreeable; desirable. [OE. godlich, AS. g. See Good, and Like.]
- unhoped a.
- Not hoped or expected.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Carmen CVII: To Lesbia Reconciled is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Carmina, Project Gutenberg ebook #20732, the Richard Burton translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Catullus, Carmen CVII: To Lesbia Reconciled, in The Carmina (1894), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #20732, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/catullus-carmina/carmen-cvii-to-lesbia-reconciled.html, id L13887.
Form and metre
Carmen CVII: To Lesbia Reconciled is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is dactylic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 72%). 71% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 14.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in dactylic 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 ---A--A- for · soul · goodly · meA · returnest · white · meA · lot
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 dactylic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| An to one ever accrue any boon he lusted and longed for | 15 | ···/˘//˘··/˘··· |
| Any time after despair, grateful it comes to his soul. | 14 | /˘···˘//˘····· |
| Thus 'tis grateful to us nor gold was ever so goodly, | 13 | ··/˘·····/·/˘ |
| When thou restorest thyself (Lesbia!) to lovingmost me, | 14 | ··˘/˘˘/······· |
| Self thou restorest unhoped, and after despair thou returnest. | 16 | ··˘/˘˘/···˘/·˘/˘ |
| Oh the fair light of a Day noted with notabler white! | 14 | ·······/˘····· |
| Where lives a happier man than myself or--this being won me-- | 14 | ···/˘···/··/·· |
| Who shall e'er boast that his life brought him more coveted lot? | 13 | ··········/˘· |
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.