Carmen XXXI: On Return to Sirmio and His Villa
Sirmio! of Islands and PeninsulasEyelet, and whatsoe'er in limpid meresAnd vasty Ocean either Neptune owns,Thy scenes how willing-glad once more I see,At pain believing Thynia and the FieldsBithynian left, I'm safe to sight thy Site.Oh what more blessed be than cares resolved,When mind casts burthen and by peregrineWork over wearied, lief we hie us homeTo lie reposing in the longed-for bed!This be the single meed for toils so triste.Hail, O fair Sirmio, in thy lord rejoice:And ye, O waves of Lybian Lake be glad,And laugh what laughter pealeth in my home.
Words in this poem
- peregrine a.
- Foreign; not native; extrinsic or from without; exotic. [Spelt also pelegrine.] [L. peregrinus. See Pilgrim.]
- meed v. t.
- To reward; to repay. Waytt.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Carmen XXXI: On Return to Sirmio and His Villa 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 XXXI: On Return to Sirmio and His Villa, in The Carmina (1894), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #20732, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/catullus-carmina/carmen-xxxi-on-return-to-sirmio-and-his-villa.html, id L13814.
Form and metre
Carmen XXXI: On Return to Sirmio and His Villa is 14 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 36% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter, other poems in blank verse.
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 peninsulas · meres · owns · see · fields · site · resolved · peregrine · homeA · bed · triste · rejoice · glad · homeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sirmio! of Islands and Peninsulas | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Eyelet, and whatsoe'er in limpid meres | 9 | /˘····/˘· |
| And vasty Ocean either Neptune owns, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| Thy scenes how willing-glad once more I see, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| At pain believing Thynia and the Fields | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Bithynian left, I'm safe to sight thy Site. | 10 | ·········· |
| Oh what more blessed be than cares resolved, | 10 | ····˘···˘/ |
| When mind casts burthen and by peregrine | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Work over wearied, lief we hie us home | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To lie reposing in the longed-for bed! | 10 | ··/·˘····· |
| This be the single meed for toils so triste. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Hail, O fair Sirmio, in thy lord rejoice: | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And ye, O waves of Lybian Lake be glad, | 10 | ·········· |
| And laugh what laughter pealeth in my home. | 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.