Poeta de novo saeculo scribit.

Poeta is the subject.

You can tell because:

• scribit means he/she writes
• the person who does the writing is the subject
• poeta is in the nominative singular, the case normally used for the subject

So poeta is the poet.

Because poeta is a first-declension noun, and many first-declension nouns end in -a in the nominative singular.

Even though the first declension is often associated with feminine nouns, some masculine nouns belong to it, especially words for professions or roles, such as:

• poeta = poet
• agricola = farmer
• nauta = sailor

So the ending -a does not always mean the noun is feminine.

It is a prepositional phrase with de, and de takes the ablative.

So:

• novo = ablative singular of novus
• saeculo = ablative singular of saeculum

Together they form de novo saeculo.

Because novo is an adjective modifying saeculo, and Latin adjectives must agree with the nouns they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here:

• saeculum is neuter
• singular
• ablative (because of de)

So the adjective must match it:

• novo saeculo

De often means:

• about
• concerning
• sometimes from or down from, depending on context

In this sentence, it means about or concerning.

So de novo saeculo means about the new age/new era.

Scribit is:

• present tense
• third person singular
• active voice
• from the verb scribo, scribere

So it means:

• he writes
• she writes
• or more generally writes

Since Latin often leaves the subject pronoun unstated, the ending -it already tells you the verb is third person singular.

Because Latin has no articles.

So a noun like poeta can mean:

• the poet
• a poet

and saeculo can mean:

• the age
• an age

The exact choice in English depends on context.

Yes. Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because the grammatical endings show how the words function.

For example, these could still mean the same basic thing:

• Poeta de novo saeculo scribit
• De novo saeculo poeta scribit
• Scribit poeta de novo saeculo

However, the original order is perfectly natural. Word order in Latin often affects emphasis, not basic grammatical function.

The dictionary forms are:

• poeta, poetae = poet
• de = about, concerning; from, down from
• novus, nova, novum = new
• saeculum, saeculi = age, generation, era
• scribo, scribere, scripsi, scriptum = write

These are the forms you would usually look up in a dictionary or vocabulary list.

Because after de, Latin uses the ablative, not the accusative or nominative.

Compare:

• novum saeculum = nominative or accusative singular
• novo saeculo = ablative singular

Since the sentence has de, the correct form is de novo saeculo.

Not always.

Saeculum can mean things like:

• age
• generation
• era
• period of time
• sometimes century, depending on context

So a learner should not automatically translate it as only century. The context decides which English word fits best.

No. In this sentence, de novo should be read as:

• de
  • novo saeculo

So novo belongs with saeculo, not by itself.

This is different from the separate expression de novo used in later Latin and in English-language academic writing, where it can mean afresh or again from the beginning. Here, that is not what is happening.