Carmen XII: To M. Asinius Who Stole Napery
Marrucinus Asinius! ill thou usestThat hand sinistral in thy wit and wineFilching the napkins of more heedless hosts.Dost find this funny? Fool it passeth theeHow 'tis a sordid deed, a sorry jest.Dost misbelieve me? Trust to Pollio,Thy brother, ready to compound such theftsE'en at a talent's cost; for he's a youthIn speech past master and in fair pleasantries.Of hendecasyllabics hundreds threeTherefore expect thou, or return forthrightLinens whose loss affects me not for worthBut as mementoes of a comrade mine.For napkins Saetaban from Ebro-landFabullus sent me a free-giftie givenAlso Veranius: these perforce I loveE'en as my Veraniolus and Fabullus.
Words in this poem
- funny a.
- Droll; comical; amusing; laughable. Funny bone. See crazy bone, under Crazy. [From Fun.]
- sordid a.
- Filthy; foul; dirty. [L. sordidus, fr. sordere to be filthy or dirty; probably akin to E. swart: cf. F. sordide. See Swart, a.]
- jest n.
- A deed; an action; a gest. [OE. jeste, geste, deed, action, story, tale, OF. geste, LL. gesta, orig., exploits, neut. pl. from L. gestus, p. p. of gerere to bear, carry, accomplish, perfor]
- misbelieve v. i.
- To believe erroneously, or in a false religion.
- expect v. t.
- To wait for; to await. [L. expectatum, to look out for, await, expect; ex + out spectare to look at. See Spectacle.]
- forthright adv.
- Straight forward; in a straight direction. Sir P. [Forth, adv. + right, adv.]
- perforce v. t.
- To force; to compel.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Carmen XII: To M. Asinius Who Stole Napery 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 XII: To M. Asinius Who Stole Napery, in The Carmina (1894), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #20732, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/catullus-carmina/carmen-xii-to-m-asinius-who-stole-napery.html, id L13795.
Form and metre
Carmen XII: To M. Asinius Who Stole Napery is 17 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 85% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 65% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 AB-CA----C--B-B-- usestA · wineB · hosts · theeC · jestA · pollio · thefts · youth · pleasantries · threeC · forthright · worth · mineB · land · givenB · love · fabullus
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Marrucinus Asinius! ill thou usest | 11 | ··········· |
| That hand sinistral in thy wit and wine | 10 | ··/˘˘····· |
| Filching the napkins of more heedless hosts. | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| Dost find this funny? Fool it passeth thee | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| How 'tis a sordid deed, a sorry jest. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Dost misbelieve me? Trust to Pollio, | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Thy brother, ready to compound such thefts | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| E'en at a talent's cost; for he's a youth | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| In speech past master and in fair pleasantries. | 11 | ···/˘···/˘˘ |
| Of hendecasyllabics hundreds three | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Therefore expect thou, or return forthright | 10 | ··˘/··˘/// |
| Linens whose loss affects me not for worth | 10 | /˘··˘/···· |
| But as mementoes of a comrade mine. | 10 | ··˘/˘··/·· |
| For napkins Saetaban from Ebro-land | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| Fabullus sent me a free-giftie given | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Also Veranius: these perforce I love | 10 | /˘····˘/·· |
| E'en as my Veraniolus and Fabullus. | 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.