Carmen V: To Lesbia, (Of Lesbos—Clodia?)
Love we (my Lesbia!) and live we our day,While all stern sayings crabbed sages say,At one doit's value let us price and prize!The Suns can westward sink again to riseBut we, extinguished once our tiny light,Perforce shall slumber through one lasting night!Kiss me a thousand times, then hundred more,Then thousand others, then a new five-score,Still other thousand other hundred store.Last when the sums to many thousands grow,The tale let's trouble till no more we know,Nor envious wight despiteful shall misween usKnowing how many kisses have been kissed between us.
Words in this poem
- perforce v. t.
- To force; to compel.
- 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,]
- envious a.
- Malignant; mischievous; spiteful. [OF. envios, F. envieux, fr. L. invidiosus, fr. invidia envy. See Envy, and cf. Invidious.]
- wight n.
- A whit; a bit; a jot. [OE. wight, wiht, a wight, a whit, AS. wiht, wuht, a creature, a thing; skin to D. wicht a child, OS. & OHG. wiht a creature, thing, G. wicht a creature, Icel. v]
- despiteful a.
- Full of despite; expressing malice or contemptuous hate; malicious. [See Despite, and cf. Spiteful.]
- misween v. i.
- To ween amiss; to misjudge; to distrust; to be mistaken.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Carmen V: To Lesbia, (Of Lesbos—Clodia?) 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 V: To Lesbia, (Of Lesbos—Clodia?), in The Carmina (1894), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #20732, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/catullus-carmina/carmen-v-to-lesbia-of-lesbos-clodia.html, id L13788.
Form and metre
Carmen V: To Lesbia, (Of Lesbos—Clodia?) is 13 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 62% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 15% 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 AABBCCDDDEEFF dayA · sayA · prizeB · riseB · lightC · nightC · moreD · scoreD · storeD · growE · knowE · usF · usF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Love we (my Lesbia!) and live we our day, | 10 | ········/· |
| While all stern sayings crabbed sages say, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| At one doit's value let us price and prize! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The Suns can westward sink again to rise | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| But we, extinguished once our tiny light, | 10 | ··˘/˘·//˘· |
| Perforce shall slumber through one lasting night! | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| Kiss me a thousand times, then hundred more, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Then thousand others, then a new five-score, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Still other thousand other hundred store. | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| Last when the sums to many thousands grow, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| The tale let's trouble till no more we know, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Nor envious wight despiteful shall misween us | 11 | ·/˘·˘/˘·˘/· |
| Knowing how many kisses have been kissed between us. | 11 | /·//˘······ |
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.