Carmen L: To His Friend Licinius
Idly (Licinius!) we our yesterday,Played with my tablets much as pleased us play,In mode becoming souls of dainty strain.Inditing verses either of us twainNow in one measure then in other lineWe rang the changes amid wit and wine.Then fared I homewards by thy fun so firedAnd by thy jests (Licinius!) so inspired,Nor food my hapless appetite availedNor sleep in quiet rest my eyelids veiled,But o'er the bedstead wild in furious plightI tossed a-longing to behold the light,So I might talk wi' thee, and be wi' thee.But when these wearied limbs from labour freeWere on my couchlet strewn half-dead to lie,For thee (sweet wag!) this poem for thee wrote I,Whereby thou mete and weet my cark and care.Now be not over-bold, nor this our prayerOutspit thou (apple of mine eyes!): we prayLest doom thee Nemesis hard pain repay:--She's a dire Goddess, 'ware thou cross her way.
Words in this poem
- dainty n.
- Value; estimation; the gratification or pleasure taken in anything. [OE. deinie, dainte, deintie, deyntee, OF. deintié delicacy, orig., dignity, honor, fr. L. dignitas, fr. dignus worthy. See Deign, and cf. Dignity.]
- twain a.
- Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- homewards adv.
- Toward home; in the direction of one's house, town, or country. [AS. hamweard.]
- hapless a.
- Without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy; as, hapless youth; hapless maid.
- veiled a.
- Covered by, or as by, a veil; hidden.
- plight v. t.
- To weave; to braid; to fold; to plait. [OE. pliten; probably through Old French, fr. LL. plectare, L. plectere. See Plait, Ply.]
- wrote v. i.
- To root with the snout. See 1st Root. [OE. wroten. See 1st Root.]
- mete v. i.
- To dream; also impersonally; as, me mette, I dreamed. [AS. m.]
- weet v. i.
- To know; to wit. Tyndale. [See Wit to know.]
- cark n.
- A noxious or corroding care; solicitude; worry. [OE. cark, fr. a dialectic form of F. charge; cf. W. carc anxiety, care, Arm karg charge, burden. See Charge, and cf. Cargo.]
- nemesis n.
- The goddess of retribution or vengeance; hence, retributive justice personified; divine vengeance. [L., fr. gr. Nomad.]
- dire a.
- Ill-boding; portentous; as, dire omens. [L. dirus; of uncertain origin.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Carmen L: To His Friend Licinius 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 L: To His Friend Licinius, in The Carmina (1894), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #20732, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/catullus-carmina/carmen-l-to-his-friend-licinius.html, id L13833.
Form and metre
Carmen L: To His Friend Licinius is 21 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 95% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIAAA yesterdayA · playA · strainB · twainB · lineC · wineC · firedD · inspiredD · availedE · veiledE · plightF · lightF · theeG · freeG · lieH · iH · careI · prayerI · prayA · repayA · wayA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Idly (Licinius!) we our yesterday, | 10 | /˘····//˘˘ |
| Played with my tablets much as pleased us play, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| In mode becoming souls of dainty strain. | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Inditing verses either of us twain | 10 | ˘/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Now in one measure then in other line | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| We rang the changes amid wit and wine. | 10 | ···/˘˘/··· |
| Then fared I homewards by thy fun so fired | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| And by thy jests (Licinius!) so inspired, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Nor food my hapless appetite availed | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Nor sleep in quiet rest my eyelids veiled, | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| But o'er the bedstead wild in furious plight | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| I tossed a-longing to behold the light, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| So I might talk wi' thee, and be wi' thee. | 10 | ·········· |
| But when these wearied limbs from labour free | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| Were on my couchlet strewn half-dead to lie, | 10 | ·········· |
| For thee (sweet wag!) this poem for thee wrote I, | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Whereby thou mete and weet my cark and care. | 10 | ·········· |
| Now be not over-bold, nor this our prayer | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Outspit thou (apple of mine eyes!): we pray | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Lest doom thee Nemesis hard pain repay:-- | 10 | ···/˘˘··˘/ |
| She's a dire Goddess, 'ware thou cross her way. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
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.