The Students' Wine-Bout
Ho, all ye jovial brotherhood,Quos sitis vexat plurima,I know a host whose wits are good,Quod vina spectat optima.
His wine he blends not with the juiceE puteo qui sumitur;Each kind its virtue doth produceE botris ut exprimitur.
Host, bring us forth good wine and strong,In cella quod est optimum!We brethren will our sport prolongAd noctis usque terminum.
Whoso to snarl or bite is fain,Ut canes decet rabidos,Outside our circle may remain,Ad porcos eat sordidos,
Hurrah! my lads, we'll merry make!Levate sursum pocula!God's blessing on all wine we take,In sempiterna saecula!
Words in this poem
- jovial a.
- Of or pertaining to the god, or the planet, Jupiter. [F., fr. L. Jovialis pertaining to Jove. The planet Jupiter was thought to make those born under it joyful or jovial. See Jove.]
- quod v.
- Quoth; said. See Quoth.
- whoso pron.
- Whosoever. Piers Plowman.
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- hurrah interj.
- A word used as a shout of joy, triumph, applause, encouragement, or welcome. [Cf. G., Dan., & Sw. hurra. Cf. Huzza.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Students' Wine-Bout 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, The Students' Wine-Bout, in Wine, Women and Song (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18044, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/symonds-wine-women/the-students-wine-bout.html, id L11856.
Form and metre
The Students' Wine-Bout is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The commonest rhyme scheme is ABAB, in 2 of the 5 stanzas; the rest vary or could not be confirmed. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 15% 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- brotherhoodA · plurima · goodA · optima
- 2 ABAB juiceA · sumiturB · produceA · exprimiturB
- 3 A-A- strongA · optimum · prolongA · terminum
- 4 ABAB fainA · rabidosB · remainA · sordidosB
- 5 A-A- makeA · pocula · takeA · saecula
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ho, all ye jovial brotherhood, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Quos sitis vexat plurima, | 8 | ········ |
| I know a host whose wits are good, | 8 | ········ |
| Quod vina spectat optima. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| His wine he blends not with the juice | 8 | ········ |
| E puteo qui sumitur; | 7 | ······· |
| Each kind its virtue doth produce | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| E botris ut exprimitur. | 8 | ········ |
| Host, bring us forth good wine and strong, | 8 | ········ |
| In cella quod est optimum! | 9 | ·/˘·˘//˘˘ |
| We brethren will our sport prolong | 8 | ·/˘·/·˘/ |
| Ad noctis usque terminum. | 7 | ······· |
| Whoso to snarl or bite is fain, | 8 | /˘······ |
| Ut canes decet rabidos, | 7 | ······· |
| Outside our circle may remain, | 8 | ////˘·˘/ |
| Ad porcos eat sordidos, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Hurrah! my lads, we'll merry make! | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| Levate sursum pocula! | 7 | ······· |
| God's blessing on all wine we take, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| In sempiterna saecula! | 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.