Carmen XL: Threatening Ravidus Who Stole His Mistress
What thought of folly Ravidus (poor churl!)Upon my iambs thus would headlong hurl?What good or cunning counsellor would fainUrge thee to struggle in such strife insane?Is't that the vulgar mouth thy name by rote?What will'st thou? Wishest on any wise such note?Then shalt be noted since my love so liefFor love thou sued'st to thy lasting grief.
Words in this poem
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- rote v. t.
- To learn or repeat by rote.
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Carmen XL: Threatening Ravidus Who Stole His Mistress 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 XL: Threatening Ravidus Who Stole His Mistress, in The Carmina (1894), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #20732, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/catullus-carmina/carmen-xl-threatening-ravidus-who-stole-his-mistress.html, id L13823.
Form and metre
Carmen XL: Threatening Ravidus Who Stole His Mistress is 8 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 25% 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 AABBCCDD churlA · hurlA · fainB · insaneB · roteC · noteC · liefD · griefD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What thought of folly Ravidus (poor churl!) | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Upon my iambs thus would headlong hurl? | 9 | ······/·· |
| What good or cunning counsellor would fain | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| Urge thee to struggle in such strife insane? | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Is't that the vulgar mouth thy name by rote? | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| What will'st thou? Wishest on any wise such note? | 11 | ···/˘·/˘··· |
| Then shalt be noted since my love so lief | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| For love thou sued'st to thy lasting grief. | 9 | ······/˘· |
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.