Carmen XCVII: On Aemilius the Foul
Never (so love me the Gods!) deemed I 'twas preference matterOr AEmilius' mouth choose I to smell or his ----Nothing is this more clean, uncleaner nothing that other,Yet I ajudge ---- cleaner and nicer to be;For while this one lacks teeth, that one has cubit-long tushes,Set in their battered gums favouring a muddy old box,Not to say aught of gape like wide-cleft gap of a she-muleWhenas in summer-heat wont peradventure to stale.Yet has he many a motte and holds himself to be handsome--Why wi' the baker's ass is he not bound to the mill?Him if a damsel kiss we fain must think she be readyWith her fair lips ----
Words in this poem
- cleaner n.
- One who, or that which, cleans.
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- motte n.
- A clump of trees in a prairie. [Local, U.S.] [Cf. F. motte a clod, clump, or hillock.]
- 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]
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Carmen XCVII: On Aemilius the Foul 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 XCVII: On Aemilius the Foul, in The Carmina (1894), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #20732, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/catullus-carmina/carmen-xcvii-on-aemilius-the-foul.html, id L13877.
Form and metre
Carmen XCVII: On Aemilius the Foul is 12 lines in a single stanza. 74% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.2 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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------- matter · hisA · other · be · tushesA · box · mule · stale · handsome · mill · ready · lips
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Never (so love me the Gods!) deemed I 'twas preference matter | 15 | /˘········/˘˘/˘ |
| Or AEmilius' mouth choose I to smell or his ---- | 11 | ··········· |
| Nothing is this more clean, uncleaner nothing that other, | 14 | /˘·······/˘·/˘ |
| Yet I ajudge ---- cleaner and nicer to be; | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| For while this one lacks teeth, that one has cubit-long tushes, | 14 | ·········/˘·/˘ |
| Set in their battered gums favouring a muddy old box, | 14 | ···/˘·/˘˘·/˘·· |
| Not to say aught of gape like wide-cleft gap of a she-mule | 14 | ·············· |
| Whenas in summer-heat wont peradventure to stale. | 13 | /˘·/˘········ |
| Yet has he many a motte and holds himself to be handsome-- | 15 | ···/˘····˘/··/˘ |
| Why wi' the baker's ass is he not bound to the mill? | 13 | ···/˘········ |
| Him if a damsel kiss we fain must think she be ready | 14 | ···/˘·······/˘ |
| With her fair lips ---- | 4 | ···· |
Notes from the edition 2
Leonard C. Smithers's explanatory and illustrative notes to the Burton/Smithers translation of the Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus (1894; Project Gutenberg #20732), keyed "Carmen N, v. N" to the Latin verse.
- Line 1 There is in the Greek Anthology a similar epigram by Nicarchus, which has thus been translated by Grotius: Non culo, Theodore, minus tibi foetida bucca est Noscera discrimen sit sapientis opus. Scribere debueras hic podex est meus, hic os; Nunc tu cum pedas atque loquare simul, Discere non valeo, quid venerit inde vel inde; Vipera namque infra sibilat atque supra.
- Line 7 Few are ignorant of what Scaliger here gravely tells us: fessi muli strigare solent, ut meiant. Vossius reads defissus, in a different sense.
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.