Book III: Elegy the Third: Riches Are Useless
'Tis vain to plague the skies with eager prayer,And offer incense with thy votive song,If only thou dost ask for marbles fair,To deck thy palace for the gazing throng.
Not wider fields my oxen to employ,Nor flowing harvests and abundant land,I ask of heaven; but for a long life's joyWith thee, and in old age to clasp thy hand.
If when my season of sweet light is o'er,I, carrying nothing, unto Charon yield,What profits me a ponderous golden store,Or that a thousand yoke must plough my field?
What if proud Phrygian columns fill my halls,Taenarian, Carystian, and the rest,Or branching groves adorn my spacious walls,Or golden roof, or floor with marbles dressed?
What pleasure in rare Erythraean dyes,Or purple pride of Sidon and of Tyre,Or all that can solicit envious eyes,And which the mob of fools so well admire?
Wealth has no power to lift life's load of care,Or free man's lot from Fortune's fatal chain;With thee, Neaera, poverty looks fair,And lacking thee, a kingdom were in vain.
O golden day that shall at last restoreMy lost love to my arms! O blest indeed,And worthy to be hallowed evermore!May some kind god my long petition heed!
No! not dominion, nor Pactolian stream,Nor all the riches the wide world can give!These other men may ask. My fondest dreamIs, poor but free, with my true wife to live.
Saturnian Juno, to all nuptials kind,Receive with grace my ever-anxious vow!Come, Venus, wafted by the Cyprian wind,And from thy car of shell smile on me now!
But if the mournful sisters, by whose handsOur threads of life are spun, refuse me all--May Pluto bid me to his dreary lands,Where those wide rivers through the darkness fall!
Words in this poem
- votive a.
- Given by vow, or in fulfillment of a vow; consecrated by a vow; devoted; as, votive offerings; a votive tablet. [L. votivus, fr. votum a vow: cf. F. votif. See Vow.]
- charon n.
- The son of Erebus and Nox, whose office it was to ferry the souls of the dead over the Styx, a river of the infernal regions.
- tyre n.
- Attire. See 2d and 3d Tire.
- envious a.
- Malignant; mischievous; spiteful. [OF. envios, F. envieux, fr. L. invidiosus, fr. invidia envy. See Envy, and cf. Invidious.]
- admire v. t.
- To regard with wonder or astonishment; to view with surprise; to marvel at. [F. admirer, fr. L. admirari; ad + mirari to wonder, for smirari, akin to Gr. smi, and E. smile.]
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
- 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,]
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
- pactolian a.
- Pertaining to the Pactolus, a river in ancient Lydia famous for its golden sands.
- saturnian a.
- Of or pertaining to Saturn, whose age or reign, from the mildness and wisdom of his government, is called the golden age. [L. Saturnius.]
- cyprian a.
- Belonging to Cyprus.
- dreary a.
- Sorrowful; distressful. [OE. dreori, dreri, AS. dreórig, sad; akin to G. traurig, and prob. to AS. dreósan to fall, Goth. driusan. Cf. Dross, Drear, Drizzle, Drowse.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Book III: Elegy the Third: Riches Are Useless 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 Third: Riches Are Useless, in The Elegies (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9610, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tibullus-elegies/book-iii-elegy-the-third-riches-are-useless.html, id L14432.
Form and metre
Book III: Elegy the Third: Riches Are Useless is 40 lines in 10 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 9 of its 10 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 10% 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 prayerA · songB · fairA · throngB
- 2 ABAB employA · landB · joyA · handB
- 3 -A-A o'er · yieldA · store · fieldA
- 4 ABAB hallsA · restB · wallsA · dressedB
- 5 ABAB dyesA · tyreB · eyesA · admireB
- 6 ABAB careA · chainB · fairA · vainB
- 7 ABAB restoreA · indeedB · evermoreA · heedB
- 8 ABAB streamA · giveB · dreamA · liveB
- 9 ABAB kindA · vowB · windA · nowB
- 10 ABAB handsA · allB · landsA · fallB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 'Tis vain to plague the skies with eager prayer, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And offer incense with thy votive song, | 10 | ·/˘/···/˘· |
| If only thou dost ask for marbles fair, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| To deck thy palace for the gazing throng. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Not wider fields my oxen to employ, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Nor flowing harvests and abundant land, | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| I ask of heaven; but for a long life's joy | 10 | ···/······ |
| With thee, and in old age to clasp thy hand. | 10 | ·········· |
| If when my season of sweet light is o'er, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| I, carrying nothing, unto Charon yield, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| What profits me a ponderous golden store, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Or that a thousand yoke must plough my field? | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| What if proud Phrygian columns fill my halls, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Taenarian, Carystian, and the rest, | 9 | ········· |
| Or branching groves adorn my spacious walls, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| Or golden roof, or floor with marbles dressed? | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| What pleasure in rare Erythraean dyes, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Or purple pride of Sidon and of Tyre, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Or all that can solicit envious eyes, | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| And which the mob of fools so well admire? | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Wealth has no power to lift life's load of care, | 10 | ···/······ |
| Or free man's lot from Fortune's fatal chain; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| With thee, Neaera, poverty looks fair, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| And lacking thee, a kingdom were in vain. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| O golden day that shall at last restore | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| My lost love to my arms! O blest indeed, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And worthy to be hallowed evermore! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| May some kind god my long petition heed! | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| No! not dominion, nor Pactolian stream, | 11 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘˘· |
| Nor all the riches the wide world can give! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| These other men may ask. My fondest dream | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Is, poor but free, with my true wife to live. | 10 | ·········· |
| Saturnian Juno, to all nuptials kind, | 11 | ˘/˘˘/˘··/˘· |
| Receive with grace my ever-anxious vow! | 10 | ˘/···/˘/˘· |
| Come, Venus, wafted by the Cyprian wind, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| And from thy car of shell smile on me now! | 10 | ·········· |
| But if the mournful sisters, by whose hands | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Our threads of life are spun, refuse me all-- | 10 | /·····/··· |
| May Pluto bid me to his dreary lands, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Where those wide rivers through the darkness fall! | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
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.