Carmen XCII: On Lesbia
Lesbia naggeth at me evermore and ne'er is she silentTouching myself: May I die but that by Lesbia I'm loved.What be the proof? I rail and retort like her and revile herCarefully, yet may I die but that I love her with love.
Words in this poem
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Carmen XCII: On Lesbia 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 XCII: On Lesbia, in The Carmina (1894), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #20732, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/catullus-carmina/carmen-xcii-on-lesbia.html, id L13872.
Form and metre
Carmen XCII: On Lesbia is 4 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 14.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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.
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Lesbia naggeth at me evermore and ne'er is she silent | 15 | ··/˘··/˘·····/˘ |
| Touching myself: May I die but that by Lesbia I'm loved. | 14 | /˘·/·········· |
| What be the proof? I rail and retort like her and revile her | 15 | ·······/····˘/· |
| Carefully, yet may I die but that I love her with love. | 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.