Ch 31 Ringo

[phil]

The book asks 'What effect might the poet be hoping to achieve by so widely separating noun (anulos) and adjective (senos)? To which my only reply can be 'Dunno'. Maybe to make the reader wait to find out what it is that you can have six of on each finger and not put away at night. What can you have? The mind boggles.

[benissimus]

The poem is Martial, for all you D'Oogers and those not with a Wheelock:

Senos Charinus omnibus digitis gerit
Nec nocte ponit anulos
Nec cum lavatur. Causa quae sit quaeritis?
Dactyliothecam non habet!

Well, with some admiration for poetry you can definitely see the value of word arrangement. I guess the simple answer would be "for suspense." Textbook authors tend to ask questions to which they don't (understandably) expect an answer, but merely want you to ponder something...

[latinrocks]

My Latin professor used to ask questions like that all the time and I was never great at giving answers, but here is a guess. Could Martial also be using the word order to create a ring image? That is the adj. and noun encircle a bit of the syntax and structure of the poem-- much like a ring would encircle the finger. I think also the structure helps the reader by allowing rings to go with gerit as well as ponit. I could be stretching it all a bit but maybe not.