Love Will Not Let the Poet Sleep - Style Points

Question 1

lecto compositus vix prima silentia noctis
carpebam et somno lumina victa dabam,
cum me saevus Amor prensat sursumque capillis
excitat et lacerum pervigilare iubet.
‘tu famulus meus’ inquit ‘ames cum milles puellas, 5
solus, io, solus, dure, iacere potes?’
exsilio et pedibus nudis tunicaque soluta
omne iter impedio, nullum iter expedio. [4]

Answer 1

• Line 1-2: Real sense of calm (-bam x2) and drowsy quality through imagery - silentia noctis/ lumina victa
• Line 3: present tenses throughout > v vivid

Amor = personified and = described strikingly as “savage” and then has three forceful verbs following it – presnat/excitat and iubet. Amor is the same as Cupido. Rough handling saevus/capillis.

• Line 4-5: Direct speech adds to the vivid personification

famulus = more of a personal slave or attendant than a servus

• Line 6: solus repetition = emphatic and even more so interrupted by “io”. “dure” = very confrontational and insistent.
• Line 7: Is this about magic? Bare feet on the ground were supposed to assist with magic and knots in one`s clothes hindered it. exsilo = first word in line conveys haste
• Line 8: Identical half-line rhythms and structures/repetition of iter and similarity (polyptoton) of impedio (I block) and expedio (I free) convey a sense of stopping and starting. There is a contrast between omne and nullum which adds to the sense of confusion and their elisions make for speed (omn(e) iter…null(um) iter).

Question 2

nunc propero, nunc ire piget, rursumque redire
paenitet, et pudor est stare via media. 10
ecce tacent voces hominum strepitusque viarum
et volucrum cantus turbaque fida canum:
solus ego ex cunctis paveo somnumque torumque,
et sequor imperium, magne Cupido, tuum. [4]

Answer 2

• Lines 9-10: anaphora of nunc….nunc and alliteration of “p” emphasise stopping and starting. And gradual escalation of clauses – enhance idea of dithering.

Quite moral language – piget/paenitet and pudor.

• Lines 11-12: sense of everything falling silent and stopping – line 11 same order noun (Nom) + noun (gen) Returns to the sense of silence in the
• Line 13: solus again at the start of the line to remind us of his feelings of isolation
• Line 14: The power of love emphasised again by the use of the word imperium and the epithet magno.