Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Ad Ponticum

This is a poem by John Dunbar (c. 1585 - 1626), a Scottish neo-Latin poet. You can read more about Dunbar at Dana Sutton's online edition of Dunbar's epigrammatic poetry.

Ad Ponticum
Omnis nobilitas est a virtute, sed omnis
Est a veste tibi, Pontice, nobilitas.

The vocabulary is keyed to the DCC Latin Vocabulary list. There are two words in this poem that are not on the DCC list:

nōbilitas (nōbilitātis, f.): excellence, nobility, rank
Ponticus (Ponticī, m.): Ponticus

ā ab abs: from, by (+abl.)
ad: to, up to, towards (+acc.)
omnis -e: all, every, as a whole
sed: but
sum, esse, fuī: be, exist
tū tuī tibi tē: you (sing.)
vestis -is f.: garment, robe, clothing
virtūs -ūtis f.: valor, manliness, virtue