Menalcas Mopsus
Why, Mopsus, being both together met,You skilled to breathe upon the slender reeds,I to sing ditties, do we not sit downHere where the elm-trees and the hazels blend?
You are the elder, 'tis for me to bideYour choice, Menalcas, whether now we seekYon shade that quivers to the changeful breeze,Or the cave's shelter. Look you how the caveIs with the wild vine's clusters over-laced!
None but Amyntas on these hills of oursCan vie with you.
Words in this poem
- bide v. i.
- To dwell; to inhabit; to abide; to stay. [OE. biden, AS. bidan; akin to OHG. bitan, Goth. beidan, Icel. bi; perh. orig., to wait with trust, and akin to bid. See Bid, v. t., and cf. Abide.]
- changeful a.
- Full of change; mutable; inconstant; fickle; uncertain.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Menalcas Mopsus is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Bucolics and Eclogues, Project Gutenberg ebook #230; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Virgil, Menalcas Mopsus, in The Eclogues (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #230, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/virgil-eclogues/menalcas-mopsus.html, id L25452.
Form and metre
Menalcas Mopsus is 11 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Why, Mopsus, being both together met, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| You skilled to breathe upon the slender reeds, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I to sing ditties, do we not sit down | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Here where the elm-trees and the hazels blend? | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| You are the elder, 'tis for me to bide | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Your choice, Menalcas, whether now we seek | 10 | ·········· |
| Yon shade that quivers to the changeful breeze, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Or the cave's shelter. Look you how the cave | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Is with the wild vine's clusters over-laced! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| None but Amyntas on these hills of ours | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Can vie with you. | 4 | ···· |
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.