Carmen Possum is a popular 80-line macaronic

Macaronic language

Macaronic refers to text spoken or written using a mixture of languages, sometimes including bilingual puns, particularly when the languages are used in the same context . The term is also sometimes used to denote hybrid words, which are in effect internally macaronic...

 poem written in a mix of Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 and English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

. Its author is unknown, but given its theme and language it can be surmised that he or she was from the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and either a teacher or a student of Latin.

The poem takes off from a play of words in the title: possum means "I can" in Latin, and "opossum" in colloquial English. Thus, while carmen possum sounds like valid Latin, it only makes sense when translated as "The Opossum's Song".

The poem can be used as a pedagogical device for elementary Latin teaching. The language mix includes vocabulary, morphology (turnus) and grammar (trunkum longum).

Carmen Possum is also an unpublished musical piece by Normand Lockwood

Normand Lockwood

Normand Lockwood was an American composer born in New York, New York. He studied composition at the University of Michigan from 1921–1924, and then traveled to Rome and studied composition under Ottorino Respighi from 1925 to 1926, and during this time he also had composition lessons with Nadia...

.

The poem

THE NOX was lit by lux of Luna,

And 'twas a nox most opportuna

To catch a possum or a coona;

For nix was scattered o'er this mundus,

A shallow nix, et non profundus.

On sic a nox with canis unus,

Two boys went out to hunt for coonus.

The corpus of this bonus canis

Was full as long as octo span is,

But brevior legs had canis never

Quam had hic dog; et bonus clever.

Some used to say, in stultum jocum

Quod a field was too small locum

For sic a dog to make a turnus

Circum self from stem to sternus.

Unus canis, duo puer,

Nunquam braver, nunquam truer,

Quam hoc trio nunquam fuit,

If there was I never knew it.

This bonus dog had one bad habit,

Amabat much to tree a rabbit,

Amabat plus to chase a rattus,

Amabat bene tree a cattus.

But on this nixy moonlight night

This old canis did just right.

Nunquam treed a starving rattus,

Nunquam chased a starving cattus,

But sucurrit on, intentus

On the track and on the scentus,

Till he trees a possum strongum,

In a hollow trunkum longum.

Loud he barked in horrid bellum,

Seemed on terra vehit pellum.

Quickly ran the duo puer

Mors of possum to secure.

Quam venerit, one began

To chop away like quisque man.

Soon the axe went through the truncum

Soon he hit it all kerchunkum;

Combat deepens, on ye braves!

Canis, pueri et staves

As his powers non longius carry,

Possum potest non pugnare.

On the nix his corpus lieth.

Down to Hades spirit flieth,

Joyful pueri, canis bonus,

Think him dead as any stonus.

Now they seek their pater's domo,

Feeling proud as any homo,

Knowing, certe, they will blossom

Into heroes, when with possum

They arrive, narrabunt story,

Plenus blood et plenior glory.

Pompey, David, Samson, Caesar,

Cyrus, Black Hawk, Shalmanezer!

Tell me where est now the gloria,

Where the honors of victoria?

Nunc a domum narrent story,

Plenus sanguine, tragic, gory.

Pater praiseth, likewise mater,

Wonders greatly younger frater.

Possum leave they on the mundus,

Go themselves to sleep profundus,

Somniunt possums slain in battle,

Strong as ursae, large as cattle.

When nox gives way to lux of morning,

Albam terram much adorning,

Up they jump to see the varmin,

Of the which this is the carmen.

Lo! possum est resurrectum!

Ecce pueri dejectum,

Ne relinquit back behind him,

Et the pueri never find him.

Cruel possum! bestia vilest,

How the pueros thou beguilest!

Pueri think non plus of Caesar,

Go ad Orcum, Shalmanezer,

Take your laurels, cum the honor,

Since ista possum is a goner!

See also

• The Talents
  The Talents (play)
  The Talents or Processus Talentorum, is a play from the Middle English recitals The Towneley Plays .This play contains an early example of macaronic English-Latin verse, spoken by the character Pontius Pilate:...
  
  (ca. 1460), a play containing a macaronic Middle English
  Middle English
  Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
  
  /Latin text.
• The Motor Bus (1914), a macaronic English/Latin poem by Alfred Denis Godley.

External links

• text of poem (with typos).
• Guide to Normand Lockwood collection at AMRC, UCB.