Carmen XCVI: To Calvus Anent Dead Quintilia
If to the dumb deaf tomb can aught or grateful or pleasing(Calvus!) ever accrue rising from out of our dule,Wherewith yearning desire renews our loves in the bygone,And for long friendships lost many a tear must be shed;Certes, never so much for doom of premature death-dayMust thy Quintilia mourn as she is joyed by thy love.
Words in this poem
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- accrue n.
- Something that accrues; advantage accruing. [F. accrû, OF. acreü, p. p. of accroitre, OF. acroistre to increase; L. ad + crescere to increase. Cf. Accretion, Crew. See Crescent.]
- wherewith adv.
- With which; -- used relatively.
- bygone n.
- Something gone by or past; a past event.
- certes adv.
- Certainly; in truth; verily. [F. certes, for à certes, fr. L. certus. See Certain.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Carmen XCVI: To Calvus Anent Dead Quintilia 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 XCVI: To Calvus Anent Dead Quintilia, in The Carmina (1894), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #20732, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/catullus-carmina/carmen-xcvi-to-calvus-anent-dead-quintilia.html, id L13876.
Form and metre
Carmen XCVI: To Calvus Anent Dead Quintilia is 6 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The lines average 13.0 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 |
|---|---|---|
| If to the dumb deaf tomb can aught or grateful or pleasing | 14 | ·········/˘·/˘ |
| (Calvus!) ever accrue rising from out of our dule, | 12 | ··/˘//˘···/· |
| Wherewith yearning desire renews our loves in the bygone, | 14 | ˘//˘˘/˘//···/· |
| And for long friendships lost many a tear must be shed; | 12 | ···/˘·/····· |
| Certes, never so much for doom of premature death-day | 13 | /˘/······˘/·· |
| Must thy Quintilia mourn as she is joyed by thy 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.