Poem XIX
"Some are gaming, some are drinking,Some are living without thinking;And of those who make the racket,Some are stripped of coat and jacket;Some get clothes of finer feather,Some are cleaned out altogether;No one there dreads death's invasion,But all drink in emulation."
"Bibit hera, bibit herus,Bibit miles, bibit clerus,Bibit ille, bibit illa,Bibit servus cum ancilla,Bibit velox, bibit piger,Bibit albus, bibit niger,Bibit constans, bibit vagus,Bibit rudis, bibit magus."
Words in this poem
- altogether adv.
- All together; conjointly. [OE. altogedere; al all + togedere together. See Together.]
- vagus a.
- Wandering; -- applied especially to the pneumogastric nerve. [L., wandering.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Poem XIX is in the public domain. This text is taken from Wine, Women, and Song Mediaeval Latin Students' songs; Now first translated into English verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #18044; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Addington Symonds, Poem XIX, in Wine, Women and Song (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18044, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/symonds-wine-women/poem-xix.html, id L11853.
Form and metre
Poem XIX is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 75% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 10 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic 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 AABBCC-- drinkingA · thinkingA · racketB · jacketB · featherC · altogetherC · invasion · emulation
- 2 AABB--CC herusA · clerusA · illaB · ancillaB · piger · niger · vagusC · magusC
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "Some are gaming, some are drinking, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Some are living without thinking; | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| And of those who make the racket, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Some are stripped of coat and jacket; | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Some get clothes of finer feather, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Some are cleaned out altogether; | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| No one there dreads death's invasion, | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| But all drink in emulation." | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| "Bibit hera, bibit herus, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Bibit miles, bibit clerus, | 7 | ······· |
| Bibit ille, bibit illa, | 7 | ······· |
| Bibit servus cum ancilla, | 8 | ········ |
| Bibit velox, bibit piger, | 8 | ········ |
| Bibit albus, bibit niger, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Bibit constans, bibit vagus, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Bibit rudis, bibit magus." | 8 | ··/˘···· |
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.