Book III: Elegy the Fifth: To Friends at the Baths

Tibullus (55 BC–19 BC), translated by Theodore Chickering Williams · 1905

iambic pentameter · ABAB · 40 lines · from The Elegies

You take your pleasure by Etrurian streams,Save when the dog-star burns:Or bathe you where mysterious Baiae steams,When purple Spring returns.

But dread Persephone assigns to meThe hour of gloom and fears.O Queen of death! be innocence my plea!Pity my youthful tears!

I never have profaned that sacred shrineWhere none but women go,Nor in my cup cast hemlock, or poured wineDeath-drugged for friend or foe.

I have not burned a temple: nor to crimeMy fevered passions given:Nor with wild blasphemy at worship-timeInsulted frowning Heaven.

Not yet is my dark hair defaced with gray,Nor stoop nor staff have I;For I was born upon that fatal dayThat saw two consuls die.

What profits it from tender vine to tearThe growing grape? Or whoWould pluck with naughty hand an apple fair,Before its season due?

Have mercy! gods who keep the murky streamOf that third kingdom dark!On my far future let Elysium beam!Postpone me Charon's bark!--

Till wrinkled age shall make my features pale,And to the listening boysThe old man babbles his repeated taleOf vanished days and joys!

I trust I fear too much this fever-heatWhich two long weeks I have,While with Etrurian nymphs ye sweetly meet,And cleave the yielding wave.

Live lucky, friends! live loyal unto me,Though life, though death be mine!Let herds all black dread Pluto's offering beWith white milk and red wine!

Words in this poem

etrurian a.: Of or relating to ancient Etruria, in Italy.
naughty a.: Having little or nothing.
elysium n.: A dwelling place assigned to happy souls after death; the seat of future happiness; Paradise.
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,]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Book III: Elegy the Fifth: To Friends at the Baths 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 III: Elegy the Fifth: To Friends at the Baths, in The Elegies (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9610, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tibullus-elegies/book-iii-elegy-the-fifth-to-friends-at-the-baths.html, id L14434.

Form and metre

Book III: Elegy the Fifth: To Friends at the Baths is 40 lines in 10 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 32% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.

See other poems in iambic 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 ABAB streams^A · burns^B · steams^A · returns^B
2 ABAB me^A · fears^B · plea^A · tears^B
3 ABAB shrine^A · go^B · wine^A · foe^B
4 ABAB crime^A · given^B · time^A · heaven^B
5 ABAB gray^A · i^B · day^A · die^B
6 ABAB tear^A · who^B · fair^A · due^B
7 ABAB stream^A · dark^B · beam^A · bark^B
8 ABAB pale^A · boys^B · tale^A · joys^B
9 ABAB heat^A · have^B · meet^A · wave^B
10 ABAB me^A · mine^B · be^A · wine^B

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 pentameter. How this is done.

Line	Syl.	Stress
You take your pleasure by Etrurian streams,	11	···/˘·˘/˘˘·
Save when the dog-star burns:	6	······
Or bathe you where mysterious Baiae steams,	10	····˘/˘˘··
When purple Spring returns.	6	·/˘·˘/
But dread Persephone assigns to me	9	·····˘/··
The hour of gloom and fears.	7	·/˘····
O Queen of death! be innocence my plea!	10	·····/˘˘··
Pity my youthful tears!	6	/˘·/˘·
I never have profaned that sacred shrine	10	·/˘·˘/·/˘·
Where none but women go,	6	···/˘·
Nor in my cup cast hemlock, or poured wine	10	·····/····
Death-drugged for friend or foe.	6	······
I have not burned a temple: nor to crime	10	·····/˘···
My fevered passions given:	7	·/˘/˘/˘
Nor with wild blasphemy at worship-time	10	···/˘˘·/˘·
Insulted frowning Heaven.	7	˘/˘/˘/˘
Not yet is my dark hair defaced with gray,	10	······˘/··
Nor stoop nor staff have I;	6	······
For I was born upon that fatal day	10	·······/˘·
That saw two consuls die.	6	···/˘·
What profits it from tender vine to tear	10	·/˘··/˘···
The growing grape? Or who	6	·/˘···
Would pluck with naughty hand an apple fair,	10	···/˘··/˘·
Before its season due?	6	···/˘·
Have mercy! gods who keep the murky stream	10	·/˘····/˘·
Of that third kingdom dark!	6	···/˘·
On my far future let Elysium beam!	10	···/˘·˘/˘·
Postpone me Charon's bark!--	6	˘/·/˘·
Till wrinkled age shall make my features pale,	10	·/˘····/˘·
And to the listening boys	7	···/˘˘·
The old man babbles his repeated tale	10	···/˘·˘/˘·
Of vanished days and joys!	6	·/˘···
I trust I fear too much this fever-heat	10	·······/˘·
Which two long weeks I have,	6	······
While with Etrurian nymphs ye sweetly meet,	11	··˘/˘˘··/˘·
And cleave the yielding wave.	6	···/˘·
Live lucky, friends! live loyal unto me,	10	·/˘··/˘···
Though life, though death be mine!	6	······
Let herds all black dread Pluto's offering be	10	·····/˘/˘·
With white milk and red wine!	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.

More by Tibullus

The Elegies