Carmen XXXII: Craving Ipsithilla's Last Favours
I'll love my Ipsithilla sweetest,My desires and my wit the meetest,So bid me join thy nap o' noon!Then (after bidding) add the boonUndraw thy threshold-bolt none dare,Lest thou be led afar to fare;Nay bide at home, for us prepareNine-fold continuous love-delights.But aught do thou to hurry things,For dinner-full I lie aback,And gown and tunic through I crack.
Words in this poem
- boon n.
- A prayer or petition. [OE. bone, boin, a petition, fr. Icel. b; akin to Sw. & Dan. b, AS. b, and perh. to E. ban; but influenced by F. bon good, fr. L. bonus. Ban, Bounty.]
- undraw v. t.
- To draw aside or open; to draw back. [1st pref. un- + draw.]
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
- bide v. i.
- To dwell; to inhabit; to abide; to stay. [OE. biden, AS. bidan; akin to OHG. bitan, Goth. beidan, Icel. bi; perh. orig., to wait with trust, and akin to bid. See Bid, v. t., and cf. Abide.]
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- aback n.
- An abacus. B. Jonson.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Carmen XXXII: Craving Ipsithilla's Last Favours 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 XXXII: Craving Ipsithilla's Last Favours, in The Carmina (1894), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #20732, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/catullus-carmina/carmen-xxxii-craving-ipsithilla-s-last-favours.html, id L13815.
Form and metre
Carmen XXXII: Craving Ipsithilla's Last Favours is 11 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.4 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 18% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 --AABBB--CC sweetest · meetest · noonA · boonA · dareB · fareB · prepareB · delights · things · abackC · crackC
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I'll love my Ipsithilla sweetest, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| My desires and my wit the meetest, | 10 | ·˘/˘····/˘ |
| So bid me join thy nap o' noon! | 8 | ········ |
| Then (after bidding) add the boon | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Undraw thy threshold-bolt none dare, | 8 | ˘/·/···· |
| Lest thou be led afar to fare; | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Nay bide at home, for us prepare | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Nine-fold continuous love-delights. | 9 | ··˘/˘˘·˘/ |
| But aught do thou to hurry things, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| For dinner-full I lie aback, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| And gown and tunic through I crack. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
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.