Ad M. T. Ciceronem. Catul Ep. 50
Disertissime Romuli nepotum,Quot sunt, quotque fuere, Marce Tulli,Quotque post alios erunt in annos,Gratias tibi maximas CatullusAgit, pessimus omnium poeta:Tanto pessimus omnium poeta,Quanto tu optimus omnium patronus.
Words in this poem
- omnium n.
- The aggregate value of the different stocks in which a loan to government is now usually funded. M'Culloch. [L., of all, gen. pl. of omnis all.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ad M. T. Ciceronem. Catul Ep. 50 is in the public domain. This text is taken from Lucasta, Project Gutenberg ebook #703; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Richard Lovelace, Ad M. T. Ciceronem. Catul Ep. 50, in Lucasta (1649), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #703, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lovelace-lucasta/ad-m-t-ciceronem-catul-ep-50.html, id L13082.
Form and metre
Ad M. T. Ciceronem. Catul Ep. 50 is 7 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%). 82% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.7 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in trochaic 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 ---ABBA nepotum · tulli · annos · catullusA · poetaB · poetaB · patronusA
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 trochaic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Disertissime Romuli nepotum, | 10 | ·········· |
| Quot sunt, quotque fuere, Marce Tulli, | 7 | ······· |
| Quotque post alios erunt in annos, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Gratias tibi maximas Catullus | 10 | ··/·/˘˘··· |
| Agit, pessimus omnium poeta: | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Tanto pessimus omnium poeta, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Quanto tu optimus omnium patronus. | 12 | ······/˘˘··· |
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.