Book I: Ode VIII: Lydia, Dic Per Omnes
Lydia, by all above,Why bear so hard on Sybaris, to ruin him with love?What change has made him shunThe playing-ground, who once so well could bear the dust and sun?Why does he never sitOn horseback in his company, nor with uneven bitHis Gallic courser tame?Why dreads he yellow Tiber, as 'twould sully that fair frame?Like poison loathes the oil,His arms no longer black and blue with honourable toil,He who erewhile was knownFor quoit or javelin oft and oft beyond the limit thrown?Why skulks he, as they sayDid Thetis' son before the dawn of Ilion's fatal day,For fear the manly dressShould fling him into danger's arms, amid the Lycian press?
Words in this poem
- courser n.
- One who courses or hunts. [F. coursier.]
- erewhile adv.
- Some time ago; a little while before; heretofore.
- quoit v. t.
- To throw; to pitch.
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Book I: Ode VIII: Lydia, Dic Per Omnes is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Odes and Carmen Saeculare, Project Gutenberg ebook #5432, the John Conington 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: Horace, Book I: Ode VIII: Lydia, Dic Per Omnes, in The Odes and Carmen Saeculare (1863), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5432, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/horace-odes/book-i-ode-viii-lydia-dic-per-omnes.html, id L13904.
Form and metre
Book I: Ode VIII: Lydia, Dic Per Omnes is 16 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in iambic heptameter.
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHH aboveA · loveA · shunB · sunB · sitC · bitC · tameD · frameD · oilE · toilE · knownF · thrownF · sayG · dayG · dressH · pressH
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Lydia, by all above, | 7 | /˘˘···· |
| Why bear so hard on Sybaris, to ruin him with love? | 13 | ·········/··· |
| What change has made him shun | 6 | ······ |
| The playing-ground, who once so well could bear the dust and sun? | 14 | ·/˘··········· |
| Why does he never sit | 6 | ···/˘· |
| On horseback in his company, nor with uneven bit | 13 | ·/···/˘··˘/˘· |
| His Gallic courser tame? | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Why dreads he yellow Tiber, as 'twould sully that fair frame? | 13 | ···/˘/··/˘··· |
| Like poison loathes the oil, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| His arms no longer black and blue with honourable toil, | 14 | ···/˘········· |
| He who erewhile was known | 8 | ········ |
| For quoit or javelin oft and oft beyond the limit thrown? | 14 | ···/˘······/˘· |
| Why skulks he, as they say | 6 | ······ |
| Did Thetis' son before the dawn of Ilion's fatal day, | 14 | ·/˘········/˘· |
| For fear the manly dress | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Should fling him into danger's arms, amid the Lycian press? | 14 | ·····/˘·˘/···· |
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.