Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CARMINA: 69: TO RUFUS by GAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS

First Line: THAT NO FAIR WOMAN WILL, WONDER NOT WHY
Last Line: OR CEASE TO WONDER WHY THEY FLY YOU THUS.
Subject(s): AROMAS; LOVE - EROTIC;
THAT no fair woman will, wonder not why,
Clap, Rufus, under thine her tender thigh;
Not a silk gown shall once melt one of them,
Nor the delights of a transparent gem.
A scurvy story kills thee, which doth tell
That in thine armpits a fierce goat doth dwell.
Him they all fear full of an ugly stench,
Nor's 't fit he should lie with a handsome wench.
Wherefore this noses' cursed plague first crush,
Or cease to wonder why they fly you thus.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net