Carmen LVI: To Cato, Describing a "Black Joker"
O risible matter (Cato!) and jocose,Digne of thy hearing, of thy sneering digne.Laugh (Cato!) an thou love Catullus thine;The thing is risible, nay, too jocose.Erstwhile I came upon a lad who a lassWas ---- and (so please it Dion!) IPierced him with stiffest staff and did him die.
Words in this poem
- risible a.
- Having the faculty or power of laughing; disposed to laugh. [F., fr. L. risibilis, fr. ridere, risum, to laugh. Cf. Ridiculous.]
- digne a.
- Worthy; honorable; deserving. [F., fr. L. dignus. See Design.]
- erstwhile adv.
- Till then or now; heretofore; formerly.
- lass n.
- A youth woman; a girl; a sweetheart. [OE. lasse; prob. of Celtic origin; cf. W. llodes girl, fem. of llawd lad. (Lad a youth.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Carmen LVI: To Cato, Describing a "Black Joker" 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 LVI: To Cato, Describing a "Black Joker", in The Carmina (1894), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #20732, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/catullus-carmina/carmen-lvi-to-cato-describing-a-black-joker.html, id L13839.
Form and metre
Carmen LVI: To Cato, Describing a "Black Joker" is 7 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables.
See 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 A--A-BB jocoseA · digne · thine · jocoseA · lass · iB · dieB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O risible matter (Cato!) and jocose, | 11 | ·/˘˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Digne of thy hearing, of thy sneering digne. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Laugh (Cato!) an thou love Catullus thine; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The thing is risible, nay, too jocose. | 10 | ···/˘˘··˘/ |
| Erstwhile I came upon a lad who a lass | 11 | /·········· |
| Was ---- and (so please it Dion!) I | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Pierced him with stiffest staff and did him die. | 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.