Carmen LXXVII: To Rufus, the Traitor Friend
Rufus, trusted as friend by me, so fruitlessly, vainly,(Vainly? nay to my bane and at a ruinous price!)Hast thou cajoled me thus, and enfiring innermost vitals,Ravished the whole of our good own'd by wretchedest me?Ravished; (alas and alas!) of our life thou cruellest cruelVenom, (alas and alas!) plague of our friendship and pest.Yet must I now lament that lips so pure of the purestDamsel, thy slaver foul soiled with filthiest kiss.But ne'er hope to escape scot free; for thee shall all agesKnow, and what thing thou be, Fame, the old crone, shall declare.
Words in this poem
- bane v. t.
- To be the bane of; to ruin. Fuller.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- vitals n.
- Organs that are necessary for life; more especially, the heart, lungs, and brain.
- pest n.
- A fatal epidemic disease; a pestilence; specif., the plague. [L. pestis: cf. F. peste.]
- damsel n.
- A young person, either male or female, of noble or gentle extraction; as, Damsel Pepin; Damsel Richard, Prince of Wales. [OE. damosel, damesel, damisel, damsel, fr. OF. damoisele, damisele, gentlewoman, F. demoiselle young lady; cf. OF. damoisel young nobleman, F. damoiseau; fr. LL]
- 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,]
- crone n.
- An old ewe. Tusser. [OD. kronie, karonie, an old sheep, OF. carogne, F. charogne, carrion (also F. carogne illnatured woman.). See Carrion, and Crony.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Carmen LXXVII: To Rufus, the Traitor Friend 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 LXXVII: To Rufus, the Traitor Friend, in The Carmina (1894), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #20732, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/catullus-carmina/carmen-lxxvii-to-rufus-the-traitor-friend.html, id L13856.
Form and metre
Carmen LXXVII: To Rufus, the Traitor Friend is 10 lines in a single stanza. The metre is dactylic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 73%). 65% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 13.2 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 30% 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 -----AA--- vainly · price · vitals · me · cruel · pestA · purestA · kiss · ages · declare
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Rufus, trusted as friend by me, so fruitlessly, vainly, | 13 | /˘/˘·····/˘/˘ |
| (Vainly? nay to my bane and at a ruinous price!) | 12 | /˘·······/˘· |
| Hast thou cajoled me thus, and enfiring innermost vitals, | 15 | ··˘/······/˘·/˘ |
| Ravished the whole of our good own'd by wretchedest me? | 12 | ·····/···/˘· |
| Ravished; (alas and alas!) of our life thou cruellest cruel | 14 | ··˘/·˘/·/··/˘/ |
| Venom, (alas and alas!) plague of our friendship and pest. | 14 | /˘˘/·˘/··//˘·· |
| Yet must I now lament that lips so pure of the purest | 14 | ····˘/······/˘ |
| Damsel, thy slaver foul soiled with filthiest kiss. | 11 | /˘·/˘······ |
| But ne'er hope to escape scot free; for thee shall all ages | 14 | ····˘/······/˘ |
| Know, and what thing thou be, Fame, the old crone, shall declare. | 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.