Book I: Ode XXX: O Venus
Come, Cnidian, Paphian Venus, come,Thy well-beloved Cyprus spurn,Haste, where for thee in Glycera's homeSweet odours burn.Bring too thy Cupid, glowing warm,Graces and Nymphs, unzoned and free,And Youth, that lacking thee lacks charm,And Mercury.
Words in this poem
- paphian a.
- Of or pertaining to Paphos, an ancient city of Cyprus, having a celebrated temple of Venus; hence, pertaining to Venus, or her rites.
- cyprus n.
- A thin, transparent stuff, the same as, or corresponding to, crape. It was either white or black, the latter being most common, and used for mourning. [OE. cipres, cypirs; perh. so named as being first manufactured in Cyprus. Cf. Cipers.]
- spurn v. t.
- To drive back or away, as with the foot; to kick. [OE. spurnen to kick against, to stumble over, AS. spurnan to kick, offend; akin to spura spur, OS. & OHG. spurnan to kick, Icel. spyrna, L. spernere to despise,]
- cupid
- The god of love, son of Venus; usually represented as a naked, winged boy with bow and arrow. [L.Cupido, fr. cupido desire, desire of love, fr. cupidus. See Cupidity.]
- unzoned a.
- Not zoned; not bound with a girdle; as, an unzoned bosom.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Book I: Ode XXX: O Venus 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 XXX: O Venus, in The Odes and Carmen Saeculare (1863), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5432, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/horace-odes/book-i-ode-xxx-o-venus.html, id L13925.
Form and metre
Book I: Ode XXX: O Venus is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 85% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% 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 ABAB---- comeA · spurnB · homeA · burnB · warm · free · charm · mercury
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Come, Cnidian, Paphian Venus, come, | 9 | ···/˘˘/˘· |
| Thy well-beloved Cyprus spurn, | 7 | ··˘//˘· |
| Haste, where for thee in Glycera's home | 9 | ········· |
| Sweet odours burn. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Bring too thy Cupid, glowing warm, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Graces and Nymphs, unzoned and free, | 8 | /˘··˘/·· |
| And Youth, that lacking thee lacks charm, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And Mercury. | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
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.