Book I: Ode XXXVIII: Persicos Odi
No Persian cumber, boy, for me;I hate your garlands linden-plaited;Leave winter's rose where on the treeIt hangs belated.Wreath me plain myrtle; never thinkPlain myrtle either's wear unfitting,Yours as you wait, mine as I drinkIn vine-bower sitting.
Words in this poem
- cumber n.
- Trouble; embarrassment; distress. [Cf. encombre hindrance, impediment. See Cuber,v.]
- belated a.
- Delayed beyond the usual time; too late; overtaken by night; benighted.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Book I: Ode XXXVIII: Persicos Odi 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 XXXVIII: Persicos Odi, in The Odes and Carmen Saeculare (1863), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5432, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/horace-odes/book-i-ode-xxxviii-persicos-odi.html, id L13933.
Form and metre
Book I: Ode XXXVIII: Persicos Odi is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% 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-BCBC meA · plaited · treeA · belated · thinkB · unfittingC · drinkB · sittingC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| No Persian cumber, boy, for me; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| I hate your garlands linden-plaited; | 9 | ···/˘/˘/˘ |
| Leave winter's rose where on the tree | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| It hangs belated. | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| Wreath me plain myrtle; never think | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Plain myrtle either's wear unfitting, | 9 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Yours as you wait, mine as I drink | 8 | ········ |
| In vine-bower sitting. | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
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.