Mihi placent versus quos poeta iuvenis clare recitat.

Because placere works differently from English to like.

In Latin, placere literally means to be pleasing. So instead of saying I like the verses, Latin says The verses are pleasing to me.

• mihi = to me (dative case)
• ego would mean I, which would not fit this verb

So:

• Mihi placent versus = The verses please me / I like the verses

Because its subject is plural: versus = verses.

With placere, the thing that is pleasing is the grammatical subject. Since there are multiple verses, the verb must also be plural:

• placet = is pleasing
• placent = are pleasing

So versus placent means the verses are pleasing.

Here versus is nominative plural, because it is the subject of placent.

This can be confusing because versus is a fourth-declension noun, and some of its forms look the same. In this sentence, you know it is nominative plural mainly from the syntax:

• placent needs a plural subject
• versus is the thing doing the pleasing
• therefore versus must be the subject

So even though the form may look ambiguous by itself, the sentence makes its role clear.

Quos refers back to versus.

It is a relative pronoun, introducing the relative clause:

• versus = the verses
• quos poeta iuvenis clare recitat = which the young poet recites clearly

So quos means which or whom, depending on context. Here it means which, referring to the verses.

Because inside its own clause, quos is the direct object of recitat.

This is an important Latin point: a relative pronoun gets:

1. its gender and number from its antecedent
2. its case from its role inside the relative clause

So here:

• antecedent = versus → masculine plural
• role inside relative clause = object of recitat → accusative

Therefore quos = masculine accusative plural.

Poeta iuvenis is the subject of recitat.

• poeta = poet
• iuvenis = young

Together they mean the young poet.

Both are nominative singular, because they go with the singular verb recitat.

Here it is an adjective meaning young.

Although iuvenis can also be a noun in some contexts (young man), in this sentence it modifies poeta:

• poeta iuvenis = the young poet

So it is best understood here as an adjective agreeing with poeta.

Clare is an adverb meaning clearly.

It modifies the verb recitat:

• clare recitat = recites clearly

So it tells us how the poet recites the verses.

The relative clause is:

quos poeta iuvenis clare recitat

It describes versus and gives more information about them.

Main clause:

• Mihi placent versus = I like the verses

Relative clause:

• quos poeta iuvenis clare recitat = which the young poet recites clearly

Together:

• I like the verses which the young poet recites clearly

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because the endings show the grammatical relationships.

This sentence is arranged in a very natural Latin way:

• Mihi first: gives prominence to to me
• placent versus: the main idea of the sentence
• quos poeta iuvenis clare recitat: the relative clause comes after versus

English depends heavily on word order to show subject and object, but Latin does not. So Latin can move words around for emphasis or style while still keeping the meaning clear.

A helpful way to divide it is like this:

• Mihi = indirect object with placent
• placent = main verb
• versus = subject of placent
• quos = relative pronoun referring to versus
• poeta iuvenis = subject of recitat
• clare = adverb modifying recitat
• recitat = verb in the relative clause

So the structure is:

[To me] [are pleasing] [the verses] [which the young poet clearly recites].

That is exactly why the sentence means what it does.