An Unpublished Poem, by My Late Latin Tutor
IN candent ire the solar splendor flames;The foles, langueseent, pend from arid rames;His humid front the Give, anheling, wipes,And dreams of erring on ventiferous riper.
How dulce to vive occult to mortal eyes,Dorm on the herb with none to supervise,Carp the suave berries from the crescent vine,And bibe the flow from longicaudate kine!
To me, alas! no verdurous visions come,Save yon exiguous pool's conferva-scum,--No concave vast repeats the tender hueThat laves my milk-jug with celestial blue!
Me wretched! Let me curr to quercine shades!Effund your albid hausts, lactiferous maids!Oh, might I vole to some umbrageous clump,--Depart,--be off,--excede,--evade,--erump!
Words in this poem
- candent a.
- Heated to whiteness; glowing with heat. [L. candens, p. pr. of candëre to glitter. See Candid.]
- pend n.
- Oil cake; penock. [India]
- dulce v. t.
- To make sweet; to soothe.
- vive a.
- Lively; animated; forcible. [L. vivus: cf. F. vif. See Vivid.]
- supervise n.
- Supervision; inspection.
- suave a.
- Sweet; pleasant; delightful; gracious or agreeable in manner; bland. [L. suavis sweet, pleasant: cf. F. suave. See Sweet, and cf. Suasion.]
- verdurous a.
- Covered with verdure; clothed with the fresh green of vegetation; verdured; verdant; as, verdurous pastures.
- exiguous a.
- Scanty; small; slender; diminutive. [L. exiguus.]
- effund v. t.
- To pour out. Dr. H. More. [L. effundere. See Effuse.]
- lactiferous a.
- Bearing or containing milk or a milky fluid; as, the lactiferous vessels, cells, or tissue of various vascular plants. [l. lac, lactis, milk + -ferous: cf. F. lactifère.]
- vole n.
- A deal at cards that draws all the tricks. [F.]
- umbrageous a.
- Forming or affording a shade; shady; shaded; as, umbrageous trees or foliage. [Cf. F. ombraqeux shy, skittish, suspicious, in OF. also, shady. See Umbrage.]
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An Unpublished Poem, by My Late Latin Tutor is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes — Volume 06 Poems from the Breakfast Table Series, Project Gutenberg ebook #7393; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Oliver Wendell Holmes, An Unpublished Poem, by My Late Latin Tutor, in Poems from the Breakfast-Table Series (1858), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7393, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/holmes-breakfast-table-poems/an-unpublished-poem-by-my-late-latin-tutor.html, id L23567.
Form and metre
An Unpublished Poem, by My Late Latin Tutor is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See 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 AA-- flamesA · ramesA · wipes · riper
- 2 AABB eyesA · superviseA · vineB · kineB
- 3 AABB comeA · scumA · hueB · blueB
- 4 AABB shadesA · maidsA · clumpB · erumpB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| IN candent ire the solar splendor flames; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| The foles, langueseent, pend from arid rames; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| His humid front the Give, anheling, wipes, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And dreams of erring on ventiferous riper. | 12 | ···/˘······· |
| How dulce to vive occult to mortal eyes, | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| Dorm on the herb with none to supervise, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Carp the suave berries from the crescent vine, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And bibe the flow from longicaudate kine! | 10 | ·········· |
| To me, alas! no verdurous visions come, | 11 | ··˘/·/˘˘/˘· |
| Save yon exiguous pool's conferva-scum,-- | 11 | ··˘/˘˘·˘/˘· |
| No concave vast repeats the tender hue | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| That laves my milk-jug with celestial blue! | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Me wretched! Let me curr to quercine shades! | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Effund your albid hausts, lactiferous maids! | 11 | ˘/····˘/˘˘· |
| Oh, might I vole to some umbrageous clump,-- | 11 | ·······˘/˘· |
| Depart,--be off,--excede,--evade,--erump! | 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.