Book II: Elegy the Sixth: Let Lovers All Enlist
Now for a soldier Macer goes. Will Cupid take the field?Will Love himself enlist, and bear on his soft breast a shield?
Through weary marches over land, through wandering waves at sea,Armed cap-a-pie, will that small god the hero's comrade be?
O burn him, boy, I pray, that could thy blessed favors slight!Back to the ranks the straggler bring beneath thy standard bright!
Yet, if to soldiers thou art kind, I too will volunteer,I too will from a helmet drink, nor thirst in desert's fear.
Venus, good-bye! Now, off I go! Good-bye, sweet ladies all!I am all valor, and delight to hear the trumpets call.
Large is my brag! But while with pride my project I recite,I see her bolted door,--and then my boasting fails me quite.
Never to visit her again, with many an oath I swore;But while I vowed, my feet had run unguided to her door.
Come now, ye lovers all! who serve in Cupid's hard campaign,Let us together to the wars, and thus our peace regain!
This age of iron frowns on love and smiles on golden gain,--On spoils of war which must be won by agony and pain.
For spoils alone our swords are keen, and deadly spears are hurledWhile carnage, wrath, and swifter death fly broadcast through the world.
For spoils, with double risk of death the threatening seas we sail,And climb the steel-beaked ship-of-war, so mighty and so frail!
The spoilers proud to boundless lands their bloody titles read,And see innumerable flocks o'er endless acres feed
Fine foreign marbles they will bring; and all the city stare,While one tall column for a house a thousand oxen bear.
They bind with bars the tameless sea; behind a rampart proudTheir little fishes swim in calm, when wintry storms are loud.
Ah! Love! Will not a Samian bowl hold all our mirth and wine?And pottery of poor Cuman clay, with love, seem fair and fine?
Nay! Woe is me! Naught now but gold can please our ladies gay;And so, since Venus asks for wealth, the spoils of war must pay.
My Nemesis shall roll in wealth; and promenade the town,All glittering, with my golden gifts upon her gorgeous gown.
Her filmy web of Coan weave with golden broidery gleams;Her swarthy slaves the Indian sun touched with its burning beams.
In rival hues to make her fair all conquered regions vie,Afric its azure must bestow, and Tyre its purple dye.
O look--I tell what all men know--on that most favored lover!Once in the market-place he sat, with both his soles chalked over.
Words in this poem 19
- macer n.
- A mace bearer; an officer of a court. P. Plowman. [F. massier. See Mace staff.]
- 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.]
- enlist v. t.
- To enter on a list; to enroll; to register.
- straggler n.
- One who straggles, or departs from the direct or proper course, or from the company to which he belongs; one who falls behind the rest; one who rambles without any settled direction.
- trumpets n.
- A plant (Sarracenia flava) with long, hollow leaves.
- campaign n.
- An open field; a large, open plain without considerable hills. [F. campagne, It. campagna, fr. L. Campania the level country about Naples, fr. campus field. See Camp, and cf. Champaign, Champagne.]
- carnage n.
- Flesh of slain animals or men. [F. carnage, LL. carnaticum tribute of animals, flesh of animals, fr. L. caro, carnis, flesh. See Carnal.]
- swifter v. t.
- To tighten, as slack standing rigging, by bringing the opposite shrouds nearer.
- broadcast n.
- A casting or throwing seed in all directions, as from the hand in sowing.
- tameless a.
- Incapable of being tamed; wild; untamed; untamable. Bp. Hall.
- wintry a.
- Suitable to winter; resembling winter, or what belongs to winter; brumal; hyemal; cold; stormy; wintery. [AS. wintrig.]
- samian a.
- Of or pertaining to the island of Samos. [L. Samius.]
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
- nemesis n.
- The goddess of retribution or vengeance; hence, retributive justice personified; divine vengeance. [L., fr. gr. Nomad.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- promenade n.
- A walk for pleasure, display, or exercise. Burke. [F. (with a foreign suffix), from promener to lead, take for a walk, se promener to walk, from L. prominare to drive forward or along; pro forward + minare to dr]
- gorgeous a.
- Imposing through splendid or various colors; showy; fine; magnificent. [OF. gorgias beautiful, glorious, vain, luxurious; cf. OF. gorgias ruff, neck handkerchief, and F. gorge throat, and se pengorger to assume airs. Cf. Gorge, n.]
- filmy a.
- Composed of film or films.
- tyre n.
- Attire. See 2d and 3d Tire.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Book II: Elegy the Sixth: Let Lovers All Enlist is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Elegies, Project Gutenberg ebook #9610, the Theodore Chickering Williams 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: Tibullus, Book II: Elegy the Sixth: Let Lovers All Enlist, in The Elegies (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9610, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tibullus-elegies/book-ii-elegy-the-sixth-let-lovers-all-enlist.html, id L14429.
Form and metre
Book II: Elegy the Sixth: Let Lovers All Enlist is 40 lines in 20 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 95% of the lines. The metre is fourteeners, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 13.8 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in fourteeners.
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 AA fieldA · shieldA
- 2 AA seaA · beA
- 3 AA slightA · brightA
- 4 AA volunteerA · fearA
- 5 AA allA · callA
- 6 AA reciteA · quiteA
- 7 AA sworeA · doorA
- 8 AA campaignA · regainA
- 9 AA gainA · painA
- 10 AA hurledA · worldA
- 11 AA sailA · frailA
- 12 AA readA · feedA
- 13 AA stareA · bearA
- 14 AA proudA · loudA
- 15 AA wineA · fineA
- 16 AA gayA · payA
- 17 AA townA · gownA
- 18 AA gleamsA · beamsA
- 19 AA vieA · dyeA
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 fourteeners. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Now for a soldier Macer goes. Will Cupid take the field? | 14 | ···/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Will Love himself enlist, and bear on his soft breast a shield? | 14 | ··˘/˘/········ |
| Through weary marches over land, through wandering waves at sea, | 13 | ·/˘/˘···/˘··· |
| Armed cap-a-pie, will that small god the hero's comrade be? | 14 | ·········/˘/·· |
| O burn him, boy, I pray, that could thy blessed favors slight! | 13 | ··········/˘· |
| Back to the ranks the straggler bring beneath thy standard bright! | 14 | ·····/˘····/˘· |
| Yet, if to soldiers thou art kind, I too will volunteer, | 14 | ···/˘·······˘/ |
| I too will from a helmet drink, nor thirst in desert's fear. | 14 | ·····/˘····/˘· |
| Venus, good-bye! Now, off I go! Good-bye, sweet ladies all! | 14 | /˘·········/˘· |
| I am all valor, and delight to hear the trumpets call. | 14 | ···/˘·˘/···/˘· |
| Large is my brag! But while with pride my project I recite, | 14 | ·········/˘·˘/ |
| I see her bolted door,--and then my boasting fails me quite. | 14 | ···/˘····/˘··· |
| Never to visit her again, with many an oath I swore; | 13 | /·/˘·˘/·/···· |
| But while I vowed, my feet had run unguided to her door. | 14 | ·············· |
| Come now, ye lovers all! who serve in Cupid's hard campaign, | 14 | ···/˘····/˘·˘/ |
| Let us together to the wars, and thus our peace regain! | 14 | ··˘/˘·····/·˘/ |
| This age of iron frowns on love and smiles on golden gain,-- | 13 | ···/······/˘· |
| On spoils of war which must be won by agony and pain. | 13 | ·········/˘·· |
| For spoils alone our swords are keen, and deadly spears are hurled | 14 | ··˘//····/˘··· |
| While carnage, wrath, and swifter death fly broadcast through the world. | 14 | ·/˘··/˘··/···· |
| For spoils, with double risk of death the threatening seas we sail, | 14 | ···/˘····/˘··· |
| And climb the steel-beaked ship-of-war, so mighty and so frail! | 14 | ·········/˘··· |
| The spoilers proud to boundless lands their bloody titles read, | 14 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘/˘· |
| And see innumerable flocks o'er endless acres feed | 12 | ··˘/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Fine foreign marbles they will bring; and all the city stare, | 14 | ·/˘/˘······/˘· |
| While one tall column for a house a thousand oxen bear. | 14 | ···/˘····/˘/˘· |
| They bind with bars the tameless sea; behind a rampart proud | 14 | ·····/˘····/˘· |
| Their little fishes swim in calm, when wintry storms are loud. | 14 | ·/˘/˘····/˘··· |
| Ah! Love! Will not a Samian bowl hold all our mirth and wine? | 15 | ·····/˘˘···/··· |
| And pottery of poor Cuman clay, with love, seem fair and fine? | 14 | ·/˘··········· |
| Nay! Woe is me! Naught now but gold can please our ladies gay; | 14 | ··········//˘· |
| And so, since Venus asks for wealth, the spoils of war must pay. | 14 | ···/˘········· |
| My Nemesis shall roll in wealth; and promenade the town, | 13 | ·/˘······˘/·· |
| All glittering, with my golden gifts upon her gorgeous gown. | 14 | ·/˘··/˘····/˘· |
| Her filmy web of Coan weave with golden broidery gleams; | 14 | ·/˘·····/˘/˘˘· |
| Her swarthy slaves the Indian sun touched with its burning beams. | 14 | ·/˘··/˘····/˘· |
| In rival hues to make her fair all conquered regions vie, | 14 | ·/˘······/˘/˘· |
| Afric its azure must bestow, and Tyre its purple dye. | 14 | /˘·/˘·˘/···/˘· |
| O look--I tell what all men know--on that most favored lover! | 15 | ···········/˘/˘ |
| Once in the market-place he sat, with both his soles chalked over. | 14 | ···/˘········· |
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.