Horace I, 33
Not to lament that rival flameWherewith the heartless Glycera scorns you,Nor waste your time in maudlin rhyme,How many a modern instance warns you.
Fair-browed Lycoris pines awayBecause her Cyrus loves another;The ruthless churl informs the girlHe loves her only as a brother.
For he, in turn, courts Pholoe--A maid unscotched of love's fierce virus--Why, goats will mate with wolves they hateEre Pholoe will mate with Cyrus!
Ah, weak and hapless human hearts--By cruel Mother Venus fatedTo spend this life in hopeless strife,Because incongruously mated!
Such torture, Albius, is my lot;For, though a better mistress wooed me,My Myrtale has captured meAnd with her cruelties subdued me!
Words in this poem
- wherewith adv.
- With which; -- used relatively.
- heartless a.
- Without a heart.
- maudlin a.
- Tearful; easily moved to tears; exciting to tears; excessively sentimental; weak and silly. [From Maudlin, a contr. of Magdalen, OE. Maudeleyne, who is drawn by painters with eyes swelled and red with weeping.]
- ruthless a.
- Having no ruth; cruel; pitiless.
- hapless a.
- Without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy; as, hapless youth; hapless maid.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Horace I, 33 is in the public domain. This text is taken from Hoosier Lyrics, Project Gutenberg ebook #36150; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eugene Field, Horace I, 33, in Hoosier Lyrics (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36150, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/field-poems/horace-i-33.html, id L11617.
Form and metre
Horace I, 33 is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.4 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 30% 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 -A-A flame · youA · rhyme · youA
- 2 -A-A away · anotherA · girl · brotherA
- 3 -A-A pholoe · virusA · hate · cyrusA
- 4 -A-A hearts · fatedA · strife · matedA
- 5 -AAA lot · meA · meA · meA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Not to lament that rival flame | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Wherewith the heartless Glycera scorns you, | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| Nor waste your time in maudlin rhyme, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| How many a modern instance warns you. | 9 | ·/·/˘/˘·· |
| Fair-browed Lycoris pines away | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Because her Cyrus loves another; | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| The ruthless churl informs the girl | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| He loves her only as a brother. | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| For he, in turn, courts Pholoe-- | 7 | ······· |
| A maid unscotched of love's fierce virus-- | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Why, goats will mate with wolves they hate | 8 | ········ |
| Ere Pholoe will mate with Cyrus! | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Ah, weak and hapless human hearts-- | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| By cruel Mother Venus fated | 9 | ·/˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| To spend this life in hopeless strife, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Because incongruously mated! | 9 | ··˘/˘˘˘/˘ |
| Such torture, Albius, is my lot; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| For, though a better mistress wooed me, | 9 | ···/˘/˘·· |
| My Myrtale has captured me | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And with her cruelties subdued me! | 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.