Carmen II: Lesbia's Sparrow
Sparrow! my pet's delicious joy,Wherewith in bosom nurst to toyShe loves, and gives her finger-tipFor sharp-nib'd greeding neb to nip,Were she who my desire withstoodTo seek some pet of merry mood,As crumb o' comfort for her grief,Methinks her burning lowe's relief:Could I, as plays she, play with thee,That mind might win from misery free!To me t'were grateful (as they say),Gold codling was to fleet-foot May,Whose long-bound zone it loosed for aye.
Words in this poem
- wherewith adv.
- With which; -- used relatively.
- crumb n.
- A small fragment or piece; especially, a small piece of bread or other food, broken or cut off. [AS. cruma, akin to D. kruim, G. krume; cf. G. krauen to scratch, claw.]
- methinks v.
- It seems to me; I think. See Me. [AS. þyncan to seem, me þynceedh, me þuhte, OE. me thinketh, me thoughte; akin to G. dünken to seem, denken to think, and E. think. See Me, and Think.]
- codling n.
- A young cod; also, a hake. [Dim. of cod the fish.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Carmen II: Lesbia's Sparrow 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 II: Lesbia's Sparrow, in The Carmina (1894), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #20732, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/catullus-carmina/carmen-ii-lesbia-s-sparrow.html, id L13785.
Form and metre
Carmen II: Lesbia's Sparrow is 13 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 77% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 23% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABB--CCDDEED joyA · toyA · tipB · nipB · withstood · mood · griefC · reliefC · theeD · freeD · sayE · mayE · ayeD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sparrow! my pet's delicious joy, | 8 | /˘··˘/˘· |
| Wherewith in bosom nurst to toy | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| She loves, and gives her finger-tip | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| For sharp-nib'd greeding neb to nip, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Were she who my desire withstood | 8 | ····˘/˘/ |
| To seek some pet of merry mood, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| As crumb o' comfort for her grief, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Methinks her burning lowe's relief: | 8 | ˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| Could I, as plays she, play with thee, | 8 | ········ |
| That mind might win from misery free! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To me t'were grateful (as they say), | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Gold codling was to fleet-foot May, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Whose long-bound zone it loosed for aye. | 8 | ········ |
Notes from the edition 3
Leonard C. Smithers's explanatory and illustrative notes to the Burton/Smithers translation of the Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus (1894; Project Gutenberg #20732), keyed "Carmen N, v. N" to the Latin verse.
- Line 1 Politian, commenting on Catullus, held in common with Lampridius, Turnebus and Vossius that Lesbia's sparrow was an indecent allegory, like the "grey duck" in Pope's imitation of Chaucer. Sannazarius wrote an Epigram smartly castigating Politian, the closing lines of which were to the effect that the critic would like to devour the bird:-- Meus hic Pulicianus Tam bellum sibi passerem Catulli Intra viscera habere concupiscit. Martial says: "Kiss me and I will give you Catullus's sparrow, by which he does not mean a poem. And in the Apophoreta: "If you have such a sparrow as Catullus's Lesbia deplored, it may lodge here." Chaulieu has a similar Epigram:-- Autant et plus que sa vie Phyllis aime un passereau; Ainsi la jeune Lesbie Jadis aima son moineau. Mais de celui de Catulle Se laissant aussi charmer, Dans sa cage, sans scrupule, Elle eut soin de l' enfermer. Heguin de Guerle however sees nothing to justify this opinion, remarking that Catullus was not the man to use a veil of allegory in saying an indecency. "He preferred the bare, and even coarse, word; and he is too rich in this style of writing to need the loan of equivocal passages."
- Line 12 The story of the race between Hippomenes and Atalanta, and how the crafty lover tricked the damsel into defeat by the three golden apples is well known. Cf. Ovid. Metam. lib. x. v. 560, et seq. According to Vossius the gift of an apple was equivalent to a promise of the last favour. The Emperor Theodosius caused Paulinus to be murdered for receiving an apple from his Empress. As to this, cf. the "Tale of the Three Apples," in The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (Sir Richard Burton's Translation, Benares, 1885-8, 16 volumes), vol. i. p. 191. Cf. also note to C. lxv. v. 19.
- Line 13 Virgins wore a girdle, generally of wool, for wool by the ancients was supposed to excite love, which the bridegroom the first night unbound in bed. Both in Greek and in Latin the phrase to undo the zone was used to signify the loss of virginity.
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