READ OUT LOUD. Choose which marked text you prefer to practice with - macrons in verse form, or macrons in prose order, or accent marks in prose order, or focusing on the meter. You will find materials for all of these options below. :-)
VERSE MACRONS. Here is the verse text with macrons:
Delphīnem invītum mē in littora compulit aestus,
Exemplum, infīdō quanta perīcla marī.Nam sī nec propriīs Neptūnus parcit alumnīs,
Quis tūtōs hominēs nāvibus esse putet? PROSE MACRONS. Here is the same text with macrons written out in prose word order:
Aestus in littora compulit mē, delphīnem, invītum - exemplum quanta perīcla marī infīdō. Nam sī Neptūnus non propriīs alumnīs parcit, quis putet hominēs tūtōs esse nāvibus?
STRESS (ACCENT) MARKS. Here is the prose text with accents, plus some color-coding for the words of three or more syllables (blue: penultimate stress; red: antepenultimate stress):
Aestus in líttora cómpulit me, delphínem, invítum - exémplum quanta perícla mari infído. Nam si Neptúnus non própriis alúmnis parcit, quis putet hómines tutos esse návibus?
ELEGIAC COUPLET METER. Below I have used an interpunct dot · to indicate the metrical elements in each line, and a double line || to indicate the hemistichs of the pentameter line.
Delphī·n~ invī·tum m~ in· littora· compulit· aestus,
Exem·pl~, infī·dō || quanta pe·rīcla ma·rī.Nam sī nec propriīs Neptūnus parcit alumnīs,
Quis tū·tōs homi·nēs || nāvibu·s esse pu·tet?IMAGE. Here's an illustration for the fable (image source) from a 1621 edition of the emblems:
What follows is an unmarked version of the prose rendering to faciliate word searches: Aestus in littora compulit me, delphinem, invitum - exemplum quanta pericla mari infido. Nam si Neptunus non propriis alumnis parcit, quis putet homines tutos esse navibus?
