Carmen XXV: Address to Thallus the Napery-Thief
Thou bardache Thallus! more than Coney's robeSoft, or goose-marrow or ear's lowmost lobe,Or Age's languid yard and cobweb'd part,Same Thallus greedier than the gale thou art,When the Kite-goddess shows thee Gulls agape,Return my muffler thou hast dared to rape,Saetaban napkins, tablets of Thynos, allWhich (Fool!) ancestral heirlooms thou didst call.These now unglue-ing from thy claws restore,Lest thy soft hands, and floss-like flanklets scoreThe burning scourges, basely signed and lined,And thou unwonted toss like wee barque tyned'Mid vasty Ocean vexed by madding wind!
Words in this poem
- agape adv.
- Gaping, as with wonder, expectation, or eager attention. [Pref. a- + gape.]
- muffler n.
- Anything used in muffling; esp., a scarf for protecting the head and neck in cold weather; a tippet.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
- basely adv.
- In a base manner; with despicable meanness; dishonorably; shamefully.
- unwonted a.
- Not wonted; unaccustomed; unused; not made familiar by practice; as, a child unwonted to strangers.
- barque n.
- Formerly, any small sailing vessel, as a pinnace, fishing smack, etc.; also, a rowing boat; a barge. Now applied poetically to a sailing vessel or boat of any kind. [F. barque, fr. Sp. or It. barca, fr. LL. barca for barica. See Barge.]
- madding a.
- Affected with madness; raging; furious.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Carmen XXV: Address to Thallus the Napery-Thief 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 XXV: Address to Thallus the Napery-Thief, in The Carmina (1894), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #20732, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/catullus-carmina/carmen-xxv-address-to-thallus-the-napery-thief.html, id L13808.
Form and metre
Carmen XXV: Address to Thallus the Napery-Thief is 13 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 77% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 31% 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 AABBCCDDEEF-F robeA · lobeA · partB · artB · agapeC · rapeC · allD · callD · restoreE · scoreE · linedF · tyned · windF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Thou bardache Thallus! more than Coney's robe | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Soft, or goose-marrow or ear's lowmost lobe, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Or Age's languid yard and cobweb'd part, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Same Thallus greedier than the gale thou art, | 10 | ·/˘·˘····· |
| When the Kite-goddess shows thee Gulls agape, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Return my muffler thou hast dared to rape, | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| Saetaban napkins, tablets of Thynos, all | 11 | ···/˘/˘···· |
| Which (Fool!) ancestral heirlooms thou didst call. | 10 | ··˘/˘/···· |
| These now unglue-ing from thy claws restore, | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| Lest thy soft hands, and floss-like flanklets score | 10 | ·········· |
| The burning scourges, basely signed and lined, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| And thou unwonted toss like wee barque tyned | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| 'Mid vasty Ocean vexed by madding wind! | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
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.